What is Atomic Settlement?
Glossary · Settlement
Atomic settlement is all-or-nothing settlement: every leg of a transaction completes together or none do, with no partial or failed state. For tokenized assets it enables instant delivery-versus-payment — the asset and the payment change hands in one indivisible step, removing the risk that one side settles and the other does not.
How atomic settlement works
A single transaction — or, across chains, a bundle coordinated by infrastructure such as Polygon's AggLayer — executes every leg together. If any leg fails, the entire bundle reverts as if nothing happened. That removes the counterparty and settlement risk inherent in traditional T+1/T+2 clearing, where time passes between trade and final settlement.
For tokenized securities this means delivery-versus-payment (DvP) can complete in seconds, 24/7, with no intermediary holding both sides mid-settlement. Cross-chain bundles can be guarded by pessimistic proofs that block a bundle from settling unless its invariants hold.
Frequently asked questions
What is delivery-versus-payment (DvP)?
Delivery-versus-payment is the simultaneous exchange of an asset and its payment so neither party is ever exposed to the other defaulting. Atomic settlement enforces DvP on-chain by making both legs succeed or fail together.
Related terms
- Tokenized Equity — A tokenized equity is a blockchain token that represents ownership of, or economic exposure to, a real company share.
- Real-World Asset (RWA) — A real-world asset (RWA) in crypto is an off-chain asset — a Treasury bill, equity, fund, bond, commodity, or property — represented as a blockchain token.
Informational only · not financial advice. See the live data on the newsroom. · ← All glossary terms