create risks of liquidity fragmentation ; by leveraging the existing target infrastructure it would reduce adaptation costs and implementation time, and would likely be less vulnerable to operational risk. banca d ’ italia has successfully experimented a version of this second model, centred on tips. in a nutshell, the prototype provides a dlt - agnostic protocol to synchronize the asset - leg and the cash - leg of a tokenized asset, making an instantaneous delivery ‑ versus ‑ payment transaction possible on a 24 / 7 basis. the paper documenting the results of our experiments raised considerable interest and various requests for collaboration. 11 concluding remarks to conclude, i believe that, concerning large - scale dlt adoption for financial market infrastructure, the jury is still out. the dvp settlement in central bank money requires actions by central banks, and is still under investigation. solid evidence about actual benefits of dlt adoption for financial market infrastructure ( in terms of r. la rocca, r. mancini, m. benedetti, m. caruso, s. cossu, g. galano, s. mancini, g. marcelli, p. martella, m. nardelli and c. oliviero, “ integrating dlts with market infrastructures : analysis and proof ‑ of ‑ concept for secure dvp between tips and dlt platforms ”, banca d ’ italia, markets, infrastructures, payment systems series, no. 26, july 2022. increased efficiency, security, … ) is not yet available. actually, a prominent project to move a securities exchange to the dlt technology was recently brought to a halt by the australian securities exchange ( asx ), after seven years of work and a sunk cost of about €250 million. on the other hand, according to market estimates, global spending on blockchain - based solutions, while currently negligible, has been steadily growing ( from $ 1 billion in 2017 to 19 billion in 2022 ). market interest in asset tokenization is also growing, and several pilots have been successfully completed. dlt developments may have been held back by the lack of a sound legislative framework. in the eu, an important stimulus could come from the dlt pilot regime regulation, which aims to foster innovation in the processing of tokenized securities. banca d ’ italia is cooperating with the italian ministry of finance and consob for a swift implementation of the regime in italy. we stand ready to

4 this said, the innovation pipeline is by no means empty. in the time allotted i shall review some recent developments of the “ traditional ” type, and devote some remarks to the debate on dlt - based infrastructure. in europe, the rtgs world has been evolving rapidly. in 2018 the eurosystem launched target instant payment settlement ( tips ). tips enables participating banks and their clients – corporates and households alike – to transfer funds within seconds, around the clock, 365 days a year. the eurosystem charges banks well below one cent per transaction. the project ’ s quality is widely acknowledged, as witnessed by the sveriges riksbank ’ s decision to join tips with its currency, and by the intention to follow suit announced by the central banks of norway and denmark. another prominent project is the consolidation of target2 and t2s platforms, which will go live in ten days. while the project is not revolutionary, it will enhance and modernize the services offered by target2. the new system features the iso 20022 messaging standard ( as in t2s and tips ), a centralised liquidity management that will make it more cost - effective and efficient, 5 and can facilitate payments in several currencies, if other central banks decide to join the system. a third example is the creation of the eurosystem collateral management system ( ecms ), a multi - year project that started in december 2017 and is expected to go live in april next year. the ecms will replace the current fragmented and decentralised structure for the management of collateral – de facto a patchwork of domestic systems. it will allow participants to assess and move collateral on a domestic and cross - border basis, and to settle monetary policy operations ; it will be integrated with the other eurosystem infrastructures, especially target2 and t2s, creating an infrastructure that works seamlessly across the euro area. target2 was launched on 19 november 2007 and has since been operated by banca d ’ italia, deutsche bundesbank and banque de france on behalf of the eurosystem. in 2015 target2 securities ( t2s ) was added to target2, implementing a safer and more efficient securities settlement. it should also be acknowledged that, at least in some specific instances, the digital revolution has been a mixed blessing. consider e. g. algorithmic and high - frequency trading : in normal conditions they may improve market liquidity and facilitate price discovery, but in