The governor of the Bank of Central African States, or Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC), has issued a scathing letter to the Central African Republic (CAR) regarding the country’s adoption of cryptocurrencies. In a letter addressed to the CAR Finance Minister Hervé Ndoba, governor of the BEAC Abbas Mahamat Tolli describes the “substantial negative impact” that the CAR adopting crypto will have on the monetary union of Central Africa. The CAR passed a bill announcing its intention to adopt cryptocurrencies in April. It is no surprise that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already called the decision concerning. …

A survey conducted by the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, suggested that many central banks around the world are looking into rolling out a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a paper released on Friday, the BIS Monetary and Economic Department said 90% of 81 central banks surveyed from October to December 2021 were “engaged in some form of CBDC work,” with 26% running pilots on CBDCs and more than 60% doing experiments or proofs-of-concept related to a digital currency. According to the BIS, the increase in interest around CBDCs — up from roughly 83% in 2020 — …

The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) has put the kibosh on financial institutions offering crypto trading only days after two of the country’s largest banks signaled they were opening up to digital assets. On Thursday, the BCRA said the move was to mitigate the risks crypto poses to users and “to the financial system as a whole,” citing crypto’s high volatility, use in money laundering and absence of regulatory safeguards. The news came hot on the heels of an announcement on Monday from two of the country’s largest banks, Banco Galicia and Brubank, that they would allow their customers to …

Decentralized finance firm Qredo has received approval for registration as a Bitcoin (BTC) service provider in El Salvador. In a Wednesday announcement, Qredo said the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador accepted the crypto firm's registration as a recognized Bitcoin service provider as laid out in the country’s Bitcoin Law. According to the registration website, Qredo was authorized to custody BTC, provide Bitcoin wallets, process payments and act as a digital asset exchange. HOT OFF THE PRESS#ElSalvador's Central Bank has approved Qredo to offer a range of Bitcoin services Qredo is the country's only #dMPC custody provider Such an important …

Polkadot (DOT) price ticked higher in the past 24 hours on anticipations that its new cross-chain communications protocol would solve a long-standing problem in the blockchain sector. DOT price gains 12% on XCM launch Bulls pushed DOT's price to $16.44 on May 5 from $14.72 a day before, gaining a little over 12% as they assessed the launch of XCM, a messaging system that allows parachains — individual blockchains that operate in parallel inside the Polkadot ecosystem — to communicate with each other. As Cointelegraph reported, future updates in the XCM protocol would see parachains exchanging messages without relying on …

The United States Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) concluded two days of meetings Wednesday with a widely anticipated announcement of an interest rate hike of 50 base points, or 0.5%. It is the second of an expected seven rate adjustments this year. In March, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points, or 0.25%, marking the first upward adjustment since 2018. Markets were braced for Wednesday’s hike, which was the steepest since 2000, so the immediate reaction was expected to be moderate given that Fed chair Jerome Powell had already hinted at a 50 basis-point adjustment earlier …

The crypto community and Wall Street converged last week in Nassau, Bahamas, to discuss the future of digital assets during SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference. The SkyBridge Alternatives Conference (SALT) was also co-hosted this year by FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, kicked off Crypto Bahamas with a press conference explaining that the goal behind the event was to merge the traditional financial world with the crypto community: “Crypto Bahamas combines the crypto native FTX audience with the SkyBridge asset management firm audience. We are bringing these two worlds together to create a …

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week with much to make up for after its worst April performance ever. The monthly close placed BTC/USD firmly within its established 2022 trading range, and fears are already that $30,000 or even lower is next. That said, sentiment has improved as May begins, and while crypto broadly remains tied to macro factors, on-chain data is pleasing rather than panicking analysts. With a decision on United States economic policy due on May 4, however, the coming days may be a matter of knee-jerk reactions as markets attempt to align themselves with central bank policy. Cointelegraph …

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has warned that stablecoins could undermine the Hong Kong dollar in a recently released discussion paper about its retail central bank digital currency, e-HKD. The HKMA today issued a discussion paper, outlining the policy and design issues involved in the introduction of e-HKD, and encourages the public and industry to participate in the consultation and share their views. Find out more: https://t.co/GndjuZ2Pay pic.twitter.com/hRz2noD0Ps — HKMA 香港金融管理局 (@hkmagovhk) April 27, 2022 Many in the crypto industry believe that interest in developing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) has been in response to the rise of private-sector …

The Philippines will pursue a wholesale central bank digital currency pilot project, to be called Project CBDCPh, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced Wednesday. Diokno spoke about the project last week at a roundtable of the 14th Annual Group of 24/Alliance for Financial Inclusion Policymakers held at the International Monetary Fund–World Bank spring meetings in Washington, DC. The project will be led by an intersectoral domestic team, Diokno said, as well as “external advisers from international standard-setting bodies and multilateral institutions to build on training and knowledge sharing on CBDC development and implementation all over the world.” …

In a move that could potentially foster the growth of Cuba’s nascent tech industry, the Banco Central de Cuba (BCC), the country’s central bank, will begin issuing licenses for Bitcoin (BTC) and other virtual asset services providers, or VASPs. According to the Official Gazette No. 43 published Tuesday, which includes a Central Bank of Cuba resolution, anyone wanting to provide virtual-asset-related services must acquire a license first from the central bank. It reads: “The Central Bank of Cuba, when considering the license request, evaluates the legality, opportunity and socioeconomic interest of the initiative, the characteristics of the project, the responsibility …

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) continues taking measures to prevent capital outflows amid martial law by enforcing major restrictions on cryptocurrency purchases. The Ukrainian central bank officially announced Thursday a set of restrictions on cross-border operations, prohibiting individuals from buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with the national fiat currency, the hryvnia (UAH). Ukrainians are now allowed to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies only with foreign currency, with total monthly purchases limited to 100,000 UAH ($3,300). The relevant limit also applies to international peer-to-peer transactions. According to the announcement, the NBU has deemed crypto purchases as “quasi cash transactions” alongside …