Atomic settlement
Atomic settlement means that the legs of a trade settle together or not at all. The word comes from computing, where an atomic operation cannot be split into smaller steps. In finance it describes delivery versus payment, or payment versus payment, carried out as one indivisible step, usually on a shared ledger. For the payments side the subject is the cash: an atomic trade needs the money on the ledger before the trade runs. Dated events on the topic are in the calendar below.
Instant and simultaneous are two different things
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York separated the two properties that the term usually mixes. In What Is Atomic Settlement?, Michael Lee, Antoine Martin and Benjamin Müller define instant settlement as settlement right after a trade is agreed, and simultaneous settlement as settlement in which each leg depends on the others. They propose to use the word atomic for the simultaneous part only.
The two have different costs. Simultaneous settlement is DvP extended to several linked legs, and the authors call it probably always desirable. Instant settlement means a trader can only sell securities already held and only buy with cash already in place. That rules out netting and every trade that relies on obtaining the asset later. The page on DvP settlement covers the classic models that atomic settlement builds on.
What atomic settlement costs on the cash side
In a netting system, banks pay only the balance of many trades at the end of a cycle. An atomic trade on a ledger settles gross and needs the full payment on the ledger at the moment of execution. The Spark glossary on atomic settlement puts the extra peak liquidity at an estimated 30 to 60 percent compared with netted batch settlement. Treasury has to place cash in advance in a form the ledger accepts: an e-money token, a tokenized deposit or central bank money reachable from the ledger.
Dirk Bullmann of CLS, the settlement system for foreign exchange, wrote in a ShapingFX opinion piece that the term came out of research on payment-versus-payment arrangements in a blockchain environment, and that some see it as the route to cycles such as T+0. His question is whether T+2 has a problem that needs this solution. The tokenized FX page follows the currency side.
How a ledger makes two legs depend on each other
On one ledger, a smart contract bundles both transfers into one transaction; if either fails, the whole transaction reverts. Across two ledgers, a hash time-locked contract (HTLC) ties the transfers to the same cryptographic secret, with time limits that return the funds if the swap stalls. The Spark glossary names the weak point of the second method: the party holding the secret can wait and decide whether to complete, while the other side's funds stay locked.
The settlement is also only as final as the ledger it runs on. For a bank that means a legal question in addition to the technical one; the Settlement Finality Directive page explains where EU law draws the line.
Atomic settlement in the euro area
Atomic settlement against central bank money in euro became possible with Pontes, which the Eurosystem launched on September 21, 2026. The ECB states that DvP and other transactions requiring all-or-none settlement run through a Hash-Link protocol between the DLT platform and T2. Before that, atomic trades in euro settled against e-money tokens or tokenized deposits on the trading ledger.
21X in Frankfurt settles tokenized securities against e-money tokens, and Seturion of Boerse Stuttgart Group settles against central bank money or stablecoins. The wholesale CBDC page covers the Eurosystem trials that came before Pontes.
Upcoming events on settlement and digital money in Germany
Finance Loop and atomic settlement
The forms of money that can settle a DLT trade were the subject of the payments panel at the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications, with speakers from the Deutsche Bundesbank, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and AllUnity. Finance Loop has a strategic cooperation with 21X on on-chain finance and was a partner of the Digital Euro Conference 2026.
Payments & Digital Money
Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty
What does atomic settlement mean?
All legs of a trade settle in one indivisible step, or none of them settles. Neither side can end up having delivered without receiving.
Is atomic settlement the same as DvP?
Atomic settlement is a way to achieve DvP. Classic DvP links the two legs through a central securities depository and a payment system; atomic settlement links them in one transaction on a ledger.
Does atomic settlement mean T+0?
Not necessarily. Researchers at the New York Fed separate the simultaneous part from the instant part. A trade can settle atomically at the end of the day, and instant settlement removes netting, which many trades depend on.
Can atomic settlement use central bank money in euro?
Yes, through Pontes. Since September 21, 2026, the Eurosystem links DLT platforms with T2 so that the cash leg of an all-or-none transaction settles in central bank money.
Atomic settlement and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers atomic settlement in its Payments & Digital Money track, next to DvP settlement, stablecoin settlement and wholesale central bank money. Finance Loop brings people from bank treasuries, exchanges, fintechs and central banks together at events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.