The Man Behind BIS's Next Big Move on Digital Money

The Bank for International Settlements just made a crucial hire: Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, the IMF’s digital money architect, is taking over the BIS Innovation Hub starting March 2026.

Why this matters? Mancini-Griffoli isn’t some random bureaucrat. He’s one of the few central banking insiders who actually gets blockchain infrastructure. At the IMF, he’s been the loudest voice pushing for regulated, publicly-backed digital assets—and throwing shade at chaotic stablecoins.

The Real Story:

Mancini-Griffoli’s playbook is synthetic CBDCs: private institutions issuing digital money fully backed by central bank reserves. Think of it as the “training wheels” version of crypto—all the innovation speed of blockchain, but with the safety net of public reserves.

He’s been crystal clear about the risks: unregulated stablecoins = potential user runs, liquidity nightmares, and value collapse. In September, he penned an essay warning exactly that.

What’s on His Plate:

The BIS Innovation Hub isn’t messing around. They’re running live experiments:

• mBridge: Cross-border CBDC settlement network (basically settlement without intermediaries)
• Agora: Tokenized deposit infrastructure
• Project Nexus: Interoperable CBDC rails for real-time payments

This appointment signals where the central banking establishment is headed: tokenized assets and blockchain-inspired settlement systems, but on their terms—regulated, compliant, and built on public-money architecture.

For crypto? It’s both good and cautionary. Good because institutional adoption is accelerating. Cautionary because regulators are literally coding the rails that will control this system. The Wild West phase might be ending faster than you think.