The government of Bahrain, the third-richest Arab country, is working with American investment bank JPMorgan Chase on a digital currency settlement pilot. The Central Bank of Bahrain officially announced Tuesday that the bank is now collaborating with JPMorgan and the Arab Banking Corporation BSC, or Bank ABC, in a pilot scheme to introduce an instant cross-border payment solution based on digital currency technology. Aiming to cut settlement processing time, the new digital currency pilot will involve transferring funds from and to Bahrain in U.S. dollars for payments from buyers and suppliers. The central bank emphasized that it could move forward …

The Bank of Korea reportedly has plans to maintain strict oversight on crypto trading activity via real-name bank accounts. According to a report by The Korea Herald on Thursday, the BOK is seeking authority under Article 87 of the country’s central bank Act, stating: “We plan to utilize our legal authority over requesting document submittal from financial institutions to monitor the volume of cryptocurrency transactions made through bank accounts.” The above comments are reportedly from documents submitted by the BOK to lawmakers in the country, with the central bank wary of unlawful crypto transactions causing significant risks to internal monetary …

The Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are quickly moving forward with their joint testing of the use of the digital yuan for cross-border payments. According to Bloomberg, this week, the HKMA staff confirmed that the first phase of testing for the currency’s cross-border use had been successful. The initial tests involved multiple parties, including selected merchants and a bank designated by mainland Chinese authorities. HKMA said that plans for the next phase of pilots are already underway: “We have tested the use of the related app, system connectivity and certain …

The Bank of Israel is accelerating its research for the potential issuance of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In a statement from the central bank on Tuesday, the Bank of Israel said it was preparing an action plan to explore the benefits of a digital shekel to the economy. Though the bank said it had not yet decided whether to issue a central bank digital currency, it added it would be prepared to do so should the benefits “outweigh the costs and potential risks.” The central bank said it may consider issuing a CBDC if it could meet …

Kazakhstan’s central bank is planning to examine the potential benefits and risks of adopting a state-backed digital currency. The National Bank of Kazakhstan, or NBRK, published Wednesday a report on a digital tenge pilot project and opened a public consultation on the potential central bank digital currency. According to the report, the digital tenge would be a new form of money issued by the NBRK to enable the “further development of the national payment system and reduce reliance on cash settlement using unique technical features.” The bank emphasized that the CBDC is not intended to replace either cash or cashless …

The National Bank of Georgia said that it is considering launching a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In an announcement on Wednesday, the central bank hinted at the issuance of a CBDC in an effort “to enhance efficiencies of the domestic payment system and financial inclusion.” The NBG said it would be inviting fintech firms and other financial institutions to participate in the project, named "Digital Gel" after the symbol for the country’s fiat currency, the lari. “CBDC holds the promise to unlock the tremendous value of innovative business models for the benefit of society,” says the announcement. “The …

The Central Bank of the Bahamas is preparing a national push for its digital currency this summer to get more Bahamians signing up for the Sand Dollar. In another move toward the adoption of the Bahamas’ central bank digital currency, the CBOB is now focused on connecting mobile Sand Dollar wallets with commercial banking systems, CBOB Governor John Rolle announced. According to a Wednesday report by the Nassau Guardian, Rolle said that the Bahamian government has initiated a number of measures to prepare itself and the Sand Dollar ecosystem. “There is a focus now on enrolling individuals on those various …

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) will co-exist “for a while” with more restrictive digital currencies like China’s digital yuan, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a Bloomberg interview on Monday. According to Zhao, some of the key features of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) — freedom of use and limited supply — won’t be offered by central bank digital currencies. “At the end of the day, those are core properties that users care about,” he stated. Zhao said that the differences between the two types of digital assets could make central bank-issued currencies unattractive to people in the crypto …

When European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta addressed the European Union Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in April, he emphasized the importance of privacy in any potential future CBDC rollout. The ECB had conducted a public consultation on the possibility of a digital euro, canvassing the opinions of over 8,000 individuals and businesses. The responses that came back suggested privacy was the number one concern surrounding the issuance of a central bank digital currency. With 43% of respondents highlighting privacy as the core requirement, Panetta declared that the digital euro could meet those requirements without relaxing security standards. …

It turns out the 100-million euro digital bond issued by the European Investment Bank earlier this week was actually a trial of a European central bank digital currency. A Thursday announcement from France’s central bank, Banque de France, revealed the digital bond was settled using a CBDC on a blockchain. The two year-bond was issued on the Ethereum public blockchain on Tuesday and settled the following day, with a maturity date of April 28, 2023. The sale was led by Goldman Sachs, Santander and Societe Generale. “From a technological standpoint, the experiment required the development and deployment of smart contracts …

Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital and host of the popular podcast The Portal, urged his followers over the weekend not to get caught up in Bitcoin’s (BTC) daily fluctuations. He seemed to feel that it was wiser to focus on the cryptocurrency’s ability to hedge against currency debasement at the hands of central banks. Bitcoin and other “hard-money” assets like gold and silver could be sound alternatives to the “disguised actions” of central banks, Weinstein tweeted to his nearly 485,000 followers. “Figuring out how we hedge against central bankers printing and devaluing fiat currency remains our upcoming rendezvous …

Major Chinese technology and commerce firms are starting to open up regarding their involvement in developing the digital yuan. Ant Group and Tencent Holdings revealed the extent of their collaboration with the People’s Bank of China in developing the digital yuan at the Digital China Summit, an annual trade fair in the city of Fuzhou in southeastern Fujian province. According to the South China Morning Post, Ant Group started working with the PBoC on the digital yuan in 2017, years before China officially debuted digital currency pilots in 2020. In June 2019, China’s digital currency institute reportedly used Ant’s mobile …