Isabel Schnabel, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Executive Board, delivered a landmark statement at the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium, declaring that central bank money must move onto blockchain infrastructure.
Schnabel emphasized that this shift would enable banks to settle tokenized assets instantly through smart contracts, revolutionizing the speed and efficiency of financial transactions. She highlighted that blockchain is not merely a tool for digital currencies but the backbone for modernizing financial settlement systems and monetary policy execution.
This declaration comes as major financial institutions race to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs). The ECB's public backing serves as a green light for commercial banks to adopt blockchain technology at their core, potentially reshaping the global banking landscape.
Analysts view this as a major step toward the convergence of traditional and decentralized finance, positioning Europe in a competitive race with the U.S. and China to upgrade financial infrastructure.