At Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP), an employee paid a coffee in the cafeteria using an internal token, gift, issued on Polygon, during a controlled test carried out in a limited operational environment and free of financial risk for users.
According to data collected by Fireblocks (State of Stablecoins, May 2025), based on a study among around 300 payment providers and banks, 48% of the respondents indicate a near-real-time scheme as the most important advantage of token-based streams; 33% reports improvements in liquidity and integrated processes.
Analysts from the BIS Innovation HUB note that pilot projects such as Mbridge have demonstrated a significant reduction in settlement times for cross -border payments. These figures help in contextualizing the BCP pilot, although the bank has not yet published operational statistics on the test.
The fact: first tokenized payment at the BCP headquarters
In the summer of 2025 (Exact date not announced) BCP carried out a real transaction in a limited operational environment: payment at the cash register via QR code, wallet installed on the user’s device, crediting the internal banking gift and completing the operation in a few seconds. In this context, the current remains known to the user, whereby the on the chain component is managed in the background. The guardianship and integration infrastructure was handled by fire blocks.
“This is a first for Peru and a step that helps us reconsider service models,” said Lenin Carrillo, head of Blockchain & Crypto at BCP, on the sidelines of the experiment.
Important facts
- Board: Gift (non-transferable, non-tradable)
- Network: Polygon (POS)
- Scenario: Buy in business cafeteria with QR
- Guardianship/Backend: Fire blocks
- User risk: no (funds and costs simulated by the bank)
What we know and what is missing
- Available data: Network used, nature of the token (closed), user process and roll of fire blocks.
- Unknown data: Exact date of the test, number of participants, usability statistics (success rate, average times, errors) and actual costs. Currently there is no official BCP statement with these details.
How it works (step by step)
- Installation: The employee downloads a compatible wallet.
- Credit: The bank sends the internal token gift to its wallet.
- Check out: At the cash register the user scans the QR code.
- Signature: The wallet signs the transaction on Polygoon.
- Confirmation: The payment is completed within a few seconds, while the complexities on the chain remain hidden from the user.
Why it matters: to transfer and cross -border payments
BCP looks beyond internal use. The approval of a banking smoking on public infrastructures can in fact open scenarios for transfers and cross -border payments, because tokenization helps to reduce friction and settlement times compared to traditional circuits.
Expected benefits (if scaled)
- Faster arrangement: From days to near-real-time in compatible scenarios (48% of respondents in the quoted study identifies settlement speed as the most important advantage).
- Lower About micro payments and repetitive transfers.
- Traceability And native audit thanks to the ledger.
- Integration With compliance tools and KYC/AML controls.
Limits and design choices of the pilot
Having said, the test was designed to insulate any risk: the gifts can neither transferable nor tradable, thereby avoiding exposure to volatility and the management of keys by inexperienced users. Fire blocks managed custody and backend integration. The Fireblocks report, published in May 2025, emphasizes how Stablecoins and regulated tokens enter the agenda of banks and payment providers to improve settlement times and liquidity flows.
Regulation: what is needed to go from pilot to production
The Peruvian regulating context evolves. It should be noted that large-scale acceptance will depend on clear rules with regard to custody of digital assets, consumer protection and KYC/AML requirements. Looking ahead, global references such as the FATF “Travel Rule” for virtual asset transfers, bis projects for cross-border payments based on DLT (eg Mbridge, as emphasized by the BIS Innovation Hub), and the EU Mica Regulation, which is currently being discussed, is also on the hand. BCP has stated that his intention to prepare the best for future compliance requirements with regard to digital assets products.
Context: Experiments in the sector
Similar projects are underway in Europe and other regions, with the use of polygon and guardianship providers such as Fireblocks, which confirms an adult technological process. In this context, according to some industry press releases, BCP is said to have experimented with trade functionalities on crypto -activa with a select group of users during a period called “spring 2025” – official details and public confirmation of the bank, however.
Practical impact: what really changes
This “first” shows that a bank can issue and manage closed token for internal usage cases, which means that the complexity on the chain hides and enable an assessment of usability. Nevertheless, the next challenge will be to extend the application to interoperable scenarios, perhaps to integrate from regulated stablecoins or transferable tokens without the security and checks being jeopardized.