Barbados-based fintech firm Bitt Inc will be working as the technical partner for the Central Bank of Nigeria for its proposed e-naira digital currency. In a Monday announcement, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it had chosen Bitt Inc based on the company’s “technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability and implementation experience.” It also considered the fintech firm’s experience in the development of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s digital currency, DCash, which it launched in April. The partnership announcement comes the same day the CBN issued preliminary guidelines for its central bank digital currency, or CBDC, called the e-naira. …

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued preliminary guidelines for its proposed e-naira digital currency. In a sensitization document sent to commercial banks in the country, the CBN outlined several design features of the central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to the document seen by Cointelegraph, Nigeria’s CBDC is codenamed “Project Giant” and will be pegged to the value of the naira. Thus, the e-naira will offer parity of value but will not be an interest-bearing currency. The e-naira will run alongside the country’s fiat currency, with the CBN responsible for issuing, distributing and redeeming the digital currency among …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could commence preliminary central bank digital currency (CBDC) trials before the end of the year. Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that the central bank was “being extremely careful” in its handling of a potential digital rupee, even as its counterparts around the world have been exploring their own sovereign digital currencies. According to Das, the RBI’s focus is on examining the potential impact of a digital rupee on India’s financial sector, with issues such a monetary policy control high on the agenda. On the technical side, the RBI governor …

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has identified remittances as an important aspect of El Salvador’s Bitcoin (BTC) adoption policy. According to Reuters on Tuesday, the regional development bank expects other Central American nations to pay close attention to Bitcoin’s impact on remittance costs in El Salvador. Speaking to Reuters, Dante Mossi, executive president of CABEI, stated that neighboring countries will be incentivized to follow El Salvador’s example if Bitcoin offers significant cost reduction in the remittance market. The CABEI executive described El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption policy as an “out of this world experiment” that could foster greater …

The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has published the results of a new study into how to manage the implications of issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CDBC) for the country’s financial sector. As distinct from a wholesale CBDC, which is limited to use by financial institutions and intermediaries, a retail CBDC is widely available for use by the general public. The Bank of Thailand, like many other central banks worldwide, has been engaged in CBDC research and development and now plans to begin testing a CBDC next year. Unlike the BoT, not all these central banks have committed to …

De Nederlandsche Bank, the central bank of the Netherlands, issued a warning to Binance Holdings Limited and its entities offering crypto services to local residents. In a Wednesday statement, De Nederlandsche Bank said the major crypto exchange was not operating in compliance with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act, alleging that Binance customers were at risk of “becoming involved in money laundering or terrorist financing.” According to the central bank, Binance is illegally offering crypto services as well as custodian wallets without the required legal registration. The Dutch central bank specified that its notice was to the crypto …

Mikhail Fedorov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, has revealed a possible early use case for the nation’s planned central bank digital currency (CBDC). In a recent interview published by Ukrainian media outlet TSN, the minister revealed considerations within the ministry to test out the CBDC by using the electronic currency in staff salary payments: “Frankly as one of the first pilots, we have on the table the question of paying salaries to employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in electronic hryvnia.” Fedorov made these comments while arguing the case for …

The latest central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been met with skepticism as Afroblocks, an in-house independent association, speculates the lack of clarity on the central bank’s intentions. Afroblocks (previously Blockchain Society Ghana) has warned the BoG to steer away from “old traditional siloed financial thinking” while planning and developing its digital currency. Rather, Afroblocks co-founder Omar Majdoub said that the success of a CBDC in Ghana will be in its ability to emulate modern-day cryptocurrencies — i.e., being borderless and decentralized. The BoG has partnered with German securities printing firm Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) …

Argentina President Alberto Fernandez has indicated support for digital assets, asserting there is no reason to push back against the emerging asset class. During an interview with a local media outlet, Caja Negra, on Thursday, Fernandez responded to a question about whether he would consider exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), or even recognize Bitcoin as legal tender as El Salvador did earlier this year. “I don’t want to go too far out on a limb [...] but there is no reason to say ‘no’,” Fernando stated, adding: “They say the advantage is that the inflationary effect is largely …

The Russian central bank has once again reiterated its negative stance on Bitcoin (BTC), with one of the bank’s top executives comparing the cryptocurrency with a pyramid scheme. Sergey Shvetsov, the first deputy governor at the Bank of Russia, expressed the authority’s concerns over cryptocurrency investment in a Wednesday interview, warning about the perceived risk of losses by investors. Shvetsov said that local investors have been increasingly pouring their money into alternative financial instruments that he referred to as “technological financial pyramids,” stating that Bitcoin is just one of such pyramid schemes. He said that many retail investors expect huge …

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is making another step towards the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by partnering with a German currency technology provider. The BoG officially announced Wednesday that it signed an agreement with German banknote and securities printing company Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to pilot a retail CBDC in Ghana, West Africa. As part of the agreement, G+D will provide its proprietary CBDC solution known as Filia to pilot the issuance of a digital form of Ghana’s national currency, the cedi. The digital currency will be tested in a trial with local banks, merchants, payment service providers …

Jamaica is aggressively progressing with the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the Bank of Jamaica, or BOJ, has minted the country’s first batch of CBDC. The BOJ officially announced that its dedicated CBDC division demonstrated the process of minting digital currency at a financial ceremony on Monday. The issuing process for a digital version of the Jamaican dollar (JMD) was carried out with participation from Jamaica’s finance minister Nigel Clarke, BOJ governor Richard Byles and a group of senior BOJ executives, as well as a management team from Irish technology firm eCurrency Mint. According to the announcement, the …