The president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru Julio Velarde announced that his country will be entering the global race to develop a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). At the Annual Conference of Executives (CADE) with business leaders in Lima on Nov. 16 he said: “I think the payment system we are going to have eight years from now in the world is going to be completely different from the current one… Even the financial system will probably be quite different.” Velarde stated that Peru will partner with the central banks of countries more advanced in their development of …

Digital currency plans by Spanish banks must now be reported according to sources at the Banco de España, who claimed that the central bank wants to examine the effect that digitalization is having on financial services. The Bank of Spain has been quiet for years on the subject of digital currencies. However, this year, it's stepping up and asserting itself. After establishing a digital currency service providers' registry, it's moving on to the banks. According to a report from Spain's El País, the Banco de España is now on the lookout for additional information from financial organizations dealing with digital …

Cryptocurrencies have quickly emerged as one of the hottest investment vehicles of the past decade, gaining traction first from retail traders, as seen in 2017, and now from institutional investors. From being a domain of bedroom coders to a growing financial sector with over $2 trillion in market capitalization, the crypto space has seen a sudden surge in value and continues to attract huge interest from investors. While crypto assets have proven to be valuable, volatility remains a top concern, especially for institutional players. Sure, any investor can buy some cryptocurrencies and profit from their rising value. However, investing in …

On Tuesday, the governor of Russia's Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that the country will have a prototype of its digital rouble platform ready by early 2022 and will roll it out for trial use next year before making a final decision on whether or not to release its own digital currency, according to a Reuters report. Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers will reportedly begin working on the legal adjustments needed to implement the digital ruble plan to accommodate the digital currency. According to Izvestia, the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market head Anatoly Aksakov stated that these legal modifications would …

The increased popularity of Ethereum (ETH) has proven to be a double-edged sword. Its use has positioned the technology as valuable and great in potential, although also triggering increased congestion, making transactions slow and expensive. As a result, new blockchains have emerged as a way to decrease costs common to the industry. One of these is Solana (SOL) -- an exchange developed to transact at speeds greater than 50,000 transactions per second for less than $0.0001 per transaction -- a significant improvement from what users have noticed on Ethereum. That said, concerns around the use of old blockchain infrastructure extend …

Central Retail Corp., a leading firm in Thailand's retail industry, is testing a digital currency among its employees. After the sandbox phase is finished, the retail giant plans to extend the service to customers and the general public, according to a report by Bloomberg. The “C-Coin,” a blockchain-powered cryptocurrency, is being offered to 80,000 Central Retail Corp employees around the world as a reward for exceptional performance as a bonus to their usual salary. While holders can use C-Coin to pay for meals and buy items and services from Central Retail's partners using it, this is just a test project …

Blockchain technology enables value to be encapsulated and sent securely and efficiently around the world, the primary example being cryptocurrencies. However, the potential of this technology is only starting to be realized and is already impacting different industries. One sector ripe for such disruption is the gaming industry. With nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the rewards players earn on/with the items they buy are no longer siloed on a single platform with no real-world value. As these developments are still in their nascent stages, many gamers are relegated to merely buying digital property, interacting with digital neighbors, or battling digital creatures. Now, …

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced the formation of a Market Advisory Group for the purpose of exploring the infrastructural and circulation potential of the digital euro from the perspective of industry spearheads. The group also aims to uncover the digital euros optimal function within the pan-European currency's vast payments ecosystem. The group includes a number of well-established experts from the banking and financial sector, including Aleksander Kurtevski, managing director of Bankart, Antonio Macías Vecino, head of payments discipline at BBVA and Axel Schaefer, payment regulation and innovation specialist at Ingka Group (Ikea), among others. It is expected that …

The United States territory of Puerto Rico is seeing a resurgence of interest among crypto investors attracted by the fact it doesn’t charge federal income tax and eligible investors can pay zero taxes on their crypto gains. Under local law Act 22, those who live in Puerto Rico for at least half of the year are exempt from taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains — meaning they can keep most or all of the profits from crypto or other investments without having to renounce U.S. residency. The popularity of the territory as crypto tax haven was highlighted when news …

The share price of the Intercontinental Exchange-backed crypto services company Bakkt ($BKKT) has surged as it unveiled two partnerships with major global payments firms. On Monday 25 Oct., Mastercard announced it would be working with digital asset platform Bakkt to allow its customers based in the United States to buy, sell and hold digital assets through custodial wallets. On the same day, global payment provider Fiserv also announced a strategic collaboration with Bakkt to offer merchant-facing digital asset services. The news drove a bullish day of trading for BKKT, with the stock rallying by more than 50% outside of regular …

Hong Kong, one of the most significant and leading financial centers in the world, has played a large role in the development of cryptocurrencies. For instance, the Chinese territory has birthed some of the most established and successful crypto companies to date including the crypto derivatives exchange FTX, along with the digital asset platform Crypto.com. Yet, as trillions of dollars are traded regularly through crypto exchanges founded in Hong Kong, the “Vertical City” also contains an abundance of physical over-the-counter crypto shops as well. Henri Arslanian, PwC crypto lead and former chairman of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong, told …

The United States Department of the Treasury has issued a review on sanctions and suggested the government do more to develop its infrastructure and policies in regards to digital assets. In a report on Monday, the Treasury Department said the growing use of digital assets was hampering the implementation of sanctions while balancing funds from legitimate humanitarian organizations. The department suggested that better communication between itself and the crypto industry, financial institutions and others in addition to “deepening its institutional knowledge and capabilities” could help improve current policy. “Sanctions are a fundamentally important tool to advance our national security interests,” …