The Bank of Japan has announced it will begin experimenting with a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to check its feasibility from a technical perspective. The BoJ wants to digitize cash, but it remains to be seen if Japan can catch up with China, which has already begun testing its own CBDC. This is the first time the BoJ has revealed it would commence a proof-of-concept process with the digital yen, but the bank is yet to reveal a timetable. In a report called Technical Hurdles for CBDC, the bank stated it would “check the feasibility of CBDC from …

The Bank of Lithuania, or BoL, will launch a pre-sale of its CBDC, dubbed LBCOIN, on July 9, a representative for the central bank told Cointelegraph. The coin itself will be issued and sold on July 23. While LBCOIN is technically a CBDC based on the NEM blockchain and issued by the central bank of Lithuania, the financial institution prefers to call it “the world’s first blockchain-based digital collector coin”. Indeed, LBCOINs will be issued for collectible purposes. This is happening as part of the country’s larger research on blockchain and its capabilities, Pavel Lipnevič, LBCOIN project manager, told Cointelegraph. …

Kazakhstan officials revealed the nation’s digital currency development plan to experts from Russia and China at "2020 Astana Online Financial Day". According to the China Ministry of Commerce on July 1, Kazakhstan plans to double its digital currency mining investment by the end of this year, and continues to develop its central bank digital currency. According to the report, Kazakhstan's digital currency mining project attracted 82.6 million Tenge, which is about 20 million USD. The scale of this investment will increase by 80 million Tenge in 2020. Blockchain and CBDC a work in progress The development of blockchain technology gives …

In a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee today on Tuesday, central bank digital currencies took center stage before an audience of Senators looking to upgrade financial infrastructure and expand financial inclusion in the country. The witnesses and the concerns The banking committee welcomed Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla, financial inclusion professor and researcher at Duke Nakita Cuttino, and former CFTC Chair and current champion of the Digital Dollar Project Chris Giancarlo as witnesses. Cascarilla provided expertise on how existing stablecoins operate and the gaps in current finance that they fill. In his words, “Stablecoins address the antiquated plumbing of our …

In 2008, a momentous occasion took place with the release of the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper. With author Satoshi Nakamoto explicitly calling for the deconstruction of financial intermediaries, regulators around the world were put on alert, particularly as Wall Street faced one of its biggest crises since the 1930s. While Bitcoin’s lack of a stable pricing mechanism has prevented it from becoming a commonly accepted medium of exchange, Tether (USDT) — one of the earliest stablecoins, developed by Tether Ltd. — has addressed this. In 2014, Tether Ltd. issued its namesake stablecoin, Tether. As the earliest U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, Tether …

A digital Canadian dollar should imitate traditional banknotes in terms of availability and accessibility, according to staff from the country's central bank, the Bank of Canada. In an analytical note on June 30, experts from the Bank of Canada revealed some of the goals for its central bank digital currency (CBDC). Analytical notes are a product of staff and analysts at the bank, separate from the Governing Council, so they do not necessarily represent the opinion of the bank itself. The group of experts explained that the CBDC should imitate the features of regular bank notes. This means it must …

Like every maturing industry, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing extensive developments on many fronts. The potential continues growing every year — from the emergence of initial coin offerings, the first blockchain-based projects and speculation on Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies. Crypto has never run out of hot topics. Now, in 2020, the crypto asset field is no longer regarded as just another “dot-com bubble.” The subject is gaining more traction over the globe, and as COVID-19’s emergence has streamlined digital assets and crypto’s popularity, mainstream acceptance is just a few steps away. The derivatives …

The fintech industry has been changing rapidly. Digital assets, distributed ledger technology and central bank digital currencies are gaining momentum. Multi-trillion-dollar United States Federal Reserve System money creation has increased demand for digital assets, particularly Bitcoin (BTC). Banks, brokers, commercial lenders, investment advisors, private investment funds, family offices, mutual funds, fintech entrepreneurs, lawmakers and private citizens should take note of several developments in this space. Old wine, new bottles The use of ledgers to track events and transactions is of ancient origin. DLT and blockchain technology combine venerable record-keeping techniques with new technologies — like storing old wine in new …

Famed currency speculator George Soros, who in 1992 broke the Bank of England to emerge a billionaire overnight by forcing the pound out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, believes: “We will not go back to where we were when the pandemic started. That is pretty certain. But that is the only thing that is certain. Everything else is up for grabs.” Giles Coghlan, the chief currency analyst at HYCM, had the following to say: “The volatile market conditions that have come about as a result of COVID-19 has investors looking for safe haven assets to protect their capital. The …

As central bank digital currencies continue to be researched and tested by countries across the globe, it becomes more apparent that the United States dollar’s reign might be challenged once the concept is implemented on a regional scale. While most retail CBDCs focus on internal economic matters, some projects aim to facilitate trade relations within a specific region, forming a digital alternative to the greenback. The most eloquent example would be the East Asia cryptocurrency that was proposed earlier in June — a virtual asset backed by a basket of currencies including the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, South Korean won …

In a recent interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna, Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen said that the United States has been “slow to the game” in terms of experimenting, implementing and regulating the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Larsen said that the U.S. must change its viewpoint toward blockchain and cryptocurrency, as the industry is already past the 2017 and 2018 hype. The war against initial coin offering scams is won, he said, and now regulators must address the industry so that they can compete with China’s blockchain and cryptocurrency progress. According to Larsen, U.S. regulators have …

Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, took a 98-page deep dive into central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, referencing the country's own such asset — the e-krona. "The second issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review in 2020 has a special theme, namely central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the e-krona," Riksbank's June 18, 2020 report said in an initial note to readers. Sweden's interest is not new In December 2019, Sweden unveiled intentions for a pilot program around its e-krona, in collaboration with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture. The new report from the country's central bank referred to its 2018 Economic …