Abstract
An analytical synthesis of the Point Zero Forum 2026 (Zurich), drawn from the author's notes across nine sessions and a follow-up research coordination discussion. It works through the settlement layer (atomic settlement), the money layer (stablecoins and tokenized commercial bank money), the infrastructure layer (a Swift-convened Policy Lab on DLT and resilience, and cross-border payment frictions), market integrity (financial crime in tokenized markets), the issuer perspective (a fireside with Tether's chief executive and the Georgian lari stablecoin project), and a developing-economy test case (Georgia) — situating public initiatives including the Eurosystem's Pontes and Appia programs, Project Agorá, Nexus, the German Commercial Bank Money Token, and the Swift shared ledger.
About this report
This report synthesises the author's notes from nine sessions of the Point Zero Forum held in Zurich in 2026, together with one follow-up research-coordination discussion conducted in the margins of the event. It reads the programme across layers:
- Settlement — a panel on atomic settlement.
- Money — a closed roundtable on stablecoins and a roundtable on tokenized commercial bank money.
- Infrastructure — a private Policy Lab on distributed-ledger technology and resilience convened by Swift, and a workshop on cross-border payment frictions.
- Market integrity — a panel on financial crime in tokenized markets.
- The issuer perspective — a main-stage fireside with Tether's chief executive and the panel announcing the Georgian lari stablecoin project.
- A developing-economy case — Georgia, including the Institute's own research programme.
Public programmes discussed on stage — among them the Eurosystem's Pontes and Appia, Project Agorá, Nexus, the German Commercial Bank Money Token initiative, and the Swift shared ledger — are treated as named initiatives.
Two conventions govern the material. Attribution: several sessions ran under Chatham House rules, so statements are attributed to institutional roles rather than named individuals, except for main-stage appearances that were public by design. Figures: quantitative claims are reproduced as stated by participants, checked for internal consistency but not independently verified, and marked as reported where load-bearing.