The Architecture of Programmable Money
A research framework for evaluating the emerging stack of programmable settlement infrastructure across stablecoins, CBDCs and tokenized deposits.
Three distinct but converging architectures of programmable money are now under active deployment: privately issued regulated stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and tokenized commercial bank deposits.
The competitive dynamics among these architectures will shape the wholesale and retail payment systems of the coming decade. The current evidence suggests that the long-term equilibrium is unlikely to be dominated by any single category.
Privately issued regulated stablecoins have the strongest current commercial momentum, particularly in cross-border B2B and capital markets settlement use cases. USDC, EURCV and emerging Asian-currency entrants are setting the operational benchmarks.
Tokenized deposits, championed by JPMorgan's Onyx and HSBC's recent pilot, may ultimately prove the most consequential. They preserve the bank-money model while delivering the operational improvements of distributed ledger settlement.
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