A tokenized deposit and a CBDC differ in one word: whose liability the token is. A tokenized deposit is commercial bank money, a claim on a commercial bank, moved onto a programmable ledger. A CBDC is central bank money, a claim on the central bank itself. That is the same split the monetary system already runs on, deposits in the first tier facing customers, reserves in the second tier settling between banks, and the most likely digital future reproduces it rather than replacing it.
That framing settles most of the versus question before it starts. These are less two competing products than two tiers of the same system being rebuilt on shared rails, and the serious official-sector projects treat them that way.
The comparison at a glance
| Tokenized deposits | CBDC | |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | Commercial banks | Central bank |
| Tier of money | Customer-facing (first tier) | Sovereign (second tier, or retail) |
| Backing | The bank’s balance sheet, capital, supervision, deposit protection | The state |
| Live today | Commercial operation at a handful of large banks; industry pilots | Retail in three small economies; wholesale in pilots only |
| Interbank settlement | Still needs a settlement asset between banks | Is the settlement asset (wholesale form) |
| US status | Permitted; a main route to programmable dollars | Fed issuance barred through 2030 |
Two tiers, tokenized
The BIS’s 2023 blueprint for a “unified ledger” makes the logic explicit: put tokenized central bank money and tokenized commercial bank money on shared programmable infrastructure, and you keep everything that makes today’s system work, private credit creation at the customer edge, risk-free settlement at the core, while gaining atomic settlement between them. The singleness of money survives because every deposit token still settles across central bank money, so a dollar at one bank remains exactly a dollar at another.
That is also why central bankers who are cool on private stablecoins are warm on this pair. The money never leaves the regulated banking system; it changes ledgers, not issuers.
What tokenized deposits do
Tokenized deposits digitize the customer-facing tier: corporate treasury moving money between subsidiaries at midnight, programmable payment conditions on a supplier payment, collateral moving against payment. JPMorgan’s Kinexys and Citi’s Token Services run commercially for institutional clients, and the UK’s tokenized sterling deposit pilot, which grew out of the Regulated Liability Network experiments in the US and UK, is testing the multi-bank version of the same idea. The catch is reach: each bank’s token moves inside that bank’s perimeter, and interoperability between banks’ tokens is exactly the unsolved part. The full map of who is building what is in our deposit token landscape.
What wholesale CBDC does
Wholesale CBDC digitizes the settlement tier: central bank money that financial institutions use to settle among themselves on programmable ledgers. Switzerland’s Project Helvetia has settled real tokenized-bond transactions in pilot wholesale CBDC since late 2023, extended in June 2025 to run to at least mid-2027. The ECB committed in July 2025 to a dual track: Pontes, a bridge letting DLT platforms settle in central bank money via TARGET services with a pilot planned from the third quarter of 2026, then Appia, a longer-term integrated platform. None of this is production infrastructure, and the SNB is explicit that extension is not a commitment. But the direction matches the two-tier blueprint: central bank money as the settlement asset under everyone else’s tokens.
Retail CBDC is the odd one out
The versions that actually compete for the same ground are retail CBDC and tokenized deposits, since both would sit in customers’ hands. That is precisely the configuration governments have hesitated over, because a retail CBDC that citizens hold at scale drains deposits from banks. The US resolved the tension by statute: the Federal Reserve is barred from issuing a CBDC through 2030 under the law enacted on 11 July 2026, which leaves bank-issued tokens as the American path. The euro area is proceeding, carefully, with holding limits contemplated for a digital euro whose pilot starts in 2027 and whose issuance waits on legislation.
How they fit together
Project Agorá is the clearest picture of the end state: eight central banks and more than 40 financial institutions testing tokenized commercial bank deposits and tokenized central bank reserves on one platform, with prototype results published in May 2026 demonstrating atomic multi-currency settlement. Customers hold and move bank money; banks settle in central bank money; both are tokens on shared infrastructure. If that architecture ships, the “versus” in this page’s title disappears into a stack.
Where Frame fits
Frame is the settlement layer for modern finance. Through configured integrations, Frame Rules checks the institution's policy before release, and Frame Proof seals the outcome reported by the customer's execution platform.
The customer's platforms execute the transaction. Rail coverage, execution timing and finality depend on the configured integration and the underlying systems. The institution remains responsible for its policies, permissions and operating controls.
See how a rail-neutral settlement layer works: the Frame Blueprint.
Common questions.
What is the difference between a tokenized deposit and a CBDC?
The tier of money. A tokenized deposit is commercial bank money, a customer's claim on a commercial bank, recorded on a programmable ledger instead of the bank's conventional core system. A CBDC is central bank money, a claim on the central bank itself. They mirror today's split between the deposits in your account and the reserves banks hold at the central bank, reproduced on new infrastructure.
Are tokenized deposits and CBDCs competitors?
Mostly not. They occupy different tiers of the monetary system, and official-sector designs generally assume both: customers transact in tokenized commercial bank money while banks settle among themselves in central bank money. Project Agorá is testing exactly that combination, tokenized deposits and tokenized central bank reserves on one platform, with eight central banks and over 40 financial institutions.
Why do central banks prefer tokenized deposits over stablecoins?
Because tokenized deposits preserve the existing two-tier system. The money stays a regulated bank's liability, covered by the bank's capital, supervision, and deposit protection, and it settles in central bank money between banks, which protects the singleness of money. The BIS has argued along these lines that tokenized deposits fit the monetary system more naturally than bearer-style private coins.
Which banks have live tokenized deposit systems?
JPMorgan's Kinexys settles tokenized deposit transfers for institutional clients and Citi's Token Services moves liquidity between Citi branches, both in commercial operation for select clients. The UK ran an industry pilot of tokenized sterling deposits growing out of the Regulated Liability Network work, due to run to mid-2026. Most other efforts remain pilots, which is why coverage, not existence, is the real constraint.
Does the US CBDC ban affect tokenized deposits?
No, it points banks toward them. The law that took effect on 11 July 2026 bars the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030, while the GENIUS Act separately clarified how banks participate in payment stablecoins. Deposit tokens issued by supervised banks sit outside the CBDC prohibition, so tokenized deposits are one of the main US routes to programmable dollars.
Sources
- BIS Annual Economic Report 2023, Chapter III: Blueprint for the future monetary system
- BIS, Project Agorá: exploring tokenisation of wholesale cross-border payments (updated 27 May 2026)
- UK Finance, successful outcome of the RLN Experimentation Phase (17 September 2024)
- Swiss National Bank, SNB extends and expands Project Helvetia (30 June 2025)
- ECB, ECB commits to distributed ledger technology settlement plans with dual-track strategy (1 July 2025)
- The Block, Housing bill that includes a CBDC ban passed into law without Trump's signature (July 2026)
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, RLN proof-of-concept findings (6 July 2023)