Beijing’s bid to better control money laundering and illicit transactions through a fully traceable central bank digital currency could pose a threat to the country’s popular gambling hub Macau. A hotspot for tourists — of which 70% come from mainland China — the region’s gambling business could reportedly be adversely impacted by China’s use of a digital yuan to clamp down on illegal money flows and keep its capital account better sealed. Revenues from Macau’s casino junkets — the longtime beneficiaries of Macau’s position as the only administrative region in China where gambling is legal — had already been squeezed …

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of a CBDC task force this week, bringing together the Bank of England and Her Majesty’s Treasury to coordinate the exploration of a potential central bank digital currency. Depending on the feedback received from various areas of industry, academia, and civil society, the task force will advise the Bank of England on the future rollout (or not) of what would be a digital version of the pound. Antony Welfare, executive director of enterprise at NEM, is a member of the Whitechapel Think Tank and the Finance Payments Working Group, both …

A new ranking of global central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, places the Bahamas at the top of the leaderboard in terms of retail applications — offering an important glimpse in the race to issue government-backed cryptocurrencies. In its 2021 "CBDC global index," consulting firm PwC surveyed the level of central-bank maturity in deploying cryptocurrencies based on two factors: retail applications and interbank applications. Retail applications refer to CBDCs that can be held and transacted directly by individuals and companies in the form of digital cash. Interbank, or wholesale, CBDCs, meanwhile, are restricted to major financial institutions for settlement. “More …

China’s central bank is looking to enable foreign athletes and visitors to use the country’s digital currency during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, according to a top central bank official. Li Bo, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said that the upcoming Winter Olympics could potentially become the first test of China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, by foreign users. “For the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, we were trying to make e-CNY available not only to domestic users, but also to international athletes and like visitors,” Li said Sunday at a CNBC panel at the Boao …

Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Bank of England have begun preliminary central bank digital currency studies that could result in the creation of a national digital currency. In a document published by HM Treasury, the exchequer announced the creation of a CBDC task force in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s central bank. Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Katharine Braddick, director general of financial services at HM Treasury, will co-chair the task force. According to the terms of reference document, the task force will synergize the efforts of all relevant statutory bodies in the U.K. …

Li Bo, recently appointed deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, reportedly spoke on the benefits of crypto as an investment tool while highlighting regulatory uncertainty in the country surrounding digital assets. According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, Li made the comments at the Boao Forum in southern China on Sunday. The PBoC head said there are still regulatory risks for the central bank, citing its previous ban on initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency exchanges. Li reportedly said the PBoC will “continue to maintain the current measures and practices” as it explores any potential change in regulation, …

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of interest from central banks and governments in the stablecoin market. The reason behind it lies in the development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. The idea of issuing a digital alternative to cash is a great motivator for central banks. It allows them to gain more control over the transition and processing of cashless transactions, which are currently overseen indirectly through private payment processors and banks. Related: Did CBDCs affect the crypto space in 2020, and what’s next in 2021? Experts answer There have been a number …

Ever since the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper back in November 2008, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” the term “blockchain” has been synonymous with digital currencies in the sense of the underlying technology that allows for the transfer of value, peer-to-peer. What’s interesting is that the term “blockchain” is not used once in that white paper. The purpose of the paper was to propose a solution to the core issue of double-spending a digital currency, which is the representation of a transfer of value directly between transacting parties, without the use of a central trusted third party. Currencies …

The European Central Bank will put itself in jeopardy if it waits around o a digital euro for too long, according to an executive at major cryptocurrency firm ConsenSys. ConsenSys South Africa lead Monica Singer joined the European Blockchain Convention to discuss the role of the private sector in shaping global central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. She spoke of CBDC-powered benefits and opportunities in a Monday panel with BNP Paribas CIB digital transformation leader Dean Demellweek and Philipp Sandner, a professor at the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center. Singer — who served more than 18 years as CEO of South …

Those who oversee the traditional finance sector won’t just let Bitcoin (BTC) wander off into the sunset without a fight. That’s the sentiment expressed by the World Economic Forum’s head of blockchain and digital assets, Sheila Warren, who said a “dramatic” round of regulation was about to befall Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency space. Warren told Bloomberg on Thursday: “We’re going to see another round of pretty dramatic attempts at regulating this space. As there’s more and more activity in these spaces there’s more and more demand signal for regulators to get engaged and involved.” Warren’s comments arrived a matter …

The European Central Bank has published the results of a public consultation on a potential digital euro as the institution inches closer to deciding whether to formally study such an initiative. According to a Wednesday announcement, the ECB received more than 8,200 responses to its public digital euro consultation — a personal record for the bank regarding participation in a public consultation. Of the total responses, 47% came from Germany, with a significant amount also coming from Italy and France, accounting for 15% and 11% of total responses, respectively. The majority of respondents said that privacy was the most desired …

This is Part One of a multipart series on blockchain and crypto in China. Read Part Two about the role of emerging technologies in the future of finance in China and globally here. China has been discussing the possibilities of national digital currency for half a decade, and the Chinese digital yuan project — referred to as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP — has years of history. Back in 2014, the People’s Bank of China set up a research group “to study digital currencies and application scenarios.” The research team was conducting a digital currency study and reportedly …