Will There Be a Digital Peso? What the BSP Is Actually Building
The Bangko Sentral is testing a digital currency, but not the kind you would keep in your phone. Here is what Project Agila is, and what it means for you.
The short version
There is no digital peso for the public. The BSP says a retail CBDC, money you would hold in an app, is "not an immediate priority."
What the BSP tested is a wholesale CBDC, called Project Agila: digital central bank money that only banks and financial institutions would use to settle large payments with each other. BDO, China Bank, Land Bank, RCBC, UnionBank and Maya took part.
The tests showed it can settle interbank payments even outside business hours, but the BSP says legal, security and scaling questions must be solved first.
Next, the BSP plans a second pilot to settle government bond purchases. A full roadmap was expected in 2026.
For your wallet today, the real change is the shift to e-wallets and QR Ph: digital payments were 64.7% of retail transactions in 2025, according to the BSP.
This story explains how things work. It is not investment, legal or financial advice.
Stops on this route
Every few months, a post goes around claiming the Philippines is about to replace cash with a “digital peso.” Some come with a link to a “token” you can buy early. The real story is quieter, and more useful to understand.
Two kinds of central bank digital currency
A central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is money issued directly by a central bank in digital form. It comes in two very different kinds.
A retail CBDC is for everyone. You would hold it in an app, the way you hold money in an e-wallet today, except the balance would be a direct claim on the central bank instead of on a private company.
A wholesale CBDC is only for financial institutions. Banks would use it to settle large payments with each other. You would never see it or hold it.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is working on the second kind. In its December 2025 report on the project, the BSP said retail CBDC applications “were not an immediate priority, given the continued progress in digital retail payments and financial inclusion initiatives.”
What Project Agila tested
Project Agila is the BSP’s wholesale CBDC pilot. It tested whether “tokenized” central bank money, recorded on a shared digital ledger, could move between participating financial institutions: BDO Unibank, China Banking Corporation, Land Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, Union Bank of the Philippines and Maya Philippines, with the International Monetary Fund as project adviser. After comparing two platforms, the BSP ran its proof-of-concept tests on Oracle’s version of Hyperledger Fabric.
According to the BSP’s report, the tests showed that the technology can issue central bank money and settle large interbank transfers, including outside normal business hours, when today’s interbank system is closed. Participating institutions reported that real-time settlement and automation could help them manage their cash.
The report is also frank about the limits. Converting banks’ regular settlement funds into wholesale CBDC “operates as a manual simulation” in the test environment, without a direct link between the two systems. The BSP also flagged work still needed on how fast payments are confirmed and on notifications, and said wholesale CBDC would bring new risks and regulatory challenges that must be managed gradually.
What happens next
The report recommends focusing next on tokenized settlement of financial securities and on cross-border payments between institutions, and on writing a BSP CBDC strategic roadmap. The BSP has since said it is preparing a second pilot, reported as Project Agila 2, to test settling purchases of government bonds with wholesale CBDC, and it is studying whether wholesale CBDC could serve as a backup when the main interbank system is unavailable. In July 2026, BusinessWorld reported that the BSP expected to complete its wholesale CBDC roadmap within the year.
The International Monetary Fund, in a technical report on the BSP’s plans, urged the central bank to keep refining the use cases and cautioned against treating a wholesale CBDC as a cure-all.
So what does this mean for you?
For now, almost nothing changes in your pocket. There is no digital peso to download, hold or buy, and the BSP has not announced one. Any app, token or “presale” that claims to sell you the digital peso is not from the BSP. Treat it as a likely scam and check with the BSP or the Securities and Exchange Commission first.
The change you can actually see is happening through e-wallets, online banking and QR codes. According to the BSP, digital payments made up 64.7% of retail transactions by volume in 2025, up from 57.4% in 2024, and QR Ph payments overtook card payments for the first time. If a digital peso ever comes, it will arrive on top of habits Filipinos are already forming.
The short answer
The BSP is building plumbing, not a new wallet. Project Agila could make the payments between banks faster and work around the clock, which may one day show up as quicker transfers for everyone. A retail digital peso, money issued by the BSP straight to the public, is not on the table yet.
End of the line: sources
Every claim above comes from one of these. Open them and check us.
- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas: Project Agila — Results, Technical Findings and Policy Implications (December 2025)
- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas: Central Bank Digital Currency for the BSP
- BusinessWorld: BSP looks to complete wCBDC roadmap this year (July 7, 2026)
- Philstar: BSP digital currency pilot shows promise for large-value payments (July 2, 2026)
- Philstar: IMF urges BSP to refine digital currency roadmap (June 19, 2026)
- GMA News: Digital payments accounted for 64.7% of total retail payments in 2025, says BSP
- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas: 2024 Report on E-payments Measurement