The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, has turned its attention to the Bahamas’ central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Sand Dollar, and suggested additional regulatory oversight and education. Reporting on a consultation with the Caribbean nation on Monday, the IMF said its executive directors “recognized the potential of the Sand Dollar to foster financial inclusion” and recommended the Central Bank of The Bahamas “accelerate its education campaigns and continue strengthening internal capacity and oversight.” The consultation was somewhat of a departure from several of the IMF’s previous warnings to many countries against the adoption of digital assets — but many …

Residents of the archipelago nation, the Bahamas, may soon be able to use digital assets including the world’s first central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to pay for taxes. In a white paper on the future of digital assets released on Wednesday, the Bahamas’ Office of the Prime Minister said the government will begin to “enable payment of taxes using digital assets” by working with the country’s central bank as well as the private sector. In addition, the government plans to work on giving citizens access to crypto with the Bahamian dollar and encourage greater use of the country’s CBDC, …

Few crypto enthusiasts around the world could point to the remote island of Roatán prior to the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami. Dušan Matuska was one of them, a Bitcoin (BTC) educator whose plans to open a Bitcoin education center in a former brewery entangled with the Satoshi Nakamoto-inspired vision of a special economic zone in Honduras called Próspera. Located on Roatán, Próspera accepts Bitcoin as de facto legal tender as of April 2022. But how did a Slovakian Bitcoin miner stumble across one of the few locations worldwide to accept Bitcoin as de facto legal tender? And, what does …

The Central Bank of Jamacia recently announced that it would be launching its central bank digital currency (CBDC), dubbed the Jamaican Digital Exchange, or Jam-Dex, in the first quarter of 2022. According to the Jamaican government, the national digital currency will help to lower transaction costs while allowing the unbanked to access financial services. It is estimated that over 17% of Jamaicans are unbanked, but it is feared that many more are underbanked. This is largely due to systemic financial sector impediments. High transaction costs, in particular, are a huge limitation. Consequently, many Jamaicans believe that banks are a preserve …

In 2021, Latin America saw a soaring rise in crypto adoption among the 20 countries and 14 dependencies that make up the region. A slew of conferences, associations, new regulations and nonfungible token (NFT) projects as well as the global bull market made last year an intriguing one for the region. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting developments in the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem in Latin America in 2021. Colombian financial firms partner with crypto exchanges Early in 2021, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia authorized several partnerships between banking institutions licensed in the nation’s financial system …

Major crypto exchange Coinbase has given a $150,000 grant to Hope for Haiti as part of a pilot program aimed at providing financial assistance to Haitians experiencing social and economic hardship. In a Tuesday announcement, Hope for Haiti said Coinbase would be making the $150,000 contribution to its pilot project with financial inclusion-driven firm Emerging Impact and the Celo Foundation. According to Celo, the project utilizes the Celo Dollar (cUSD) and Emerging Impact’s Umoja platform to provide cash-based assistance to mothers affected by some of the traumatic events in the Caribbean nation. Haiti has been struck by four major earthquakes …

Jamaican reggae artist Bay-C has partnered with Caricoin, a London-based Bitcoin (BTC) wallet company, to create a nonfungible token (NFT) platform for fellow performers in the Caribbean. According to a report by the Jamaica Observer, the planned NFT platform will allow reggae and dancehall creatives in the Caribbean to gain more from their efforts in the music industry. The planned NFT platform for musicians in the Caribbean is a further extension of the three-year partnership between Caricoin and the reggae star. Commenting on the plans for the NFT platform, Bay-C stated: “Not everybody wants to understand how the blockchain technology …

The more than 5,000 residents of an island that forms a part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines can use crypto as a means of payment. According to a report from Euronews, both residents and visitors to the island of Bequia can use Bitcoin (BTC) to pay for goods and services ranging from property to food at one of the local eateries. The One Bequia project, backed by entrepreneur Storm Gonsalves, is building luxury villas on the island for sale in BTC. Gonsalves said the move to accept crypto was aimed at solving the issue of traditional financial systems abandoning …

Banking giant Citigroup has successfully completed a proof-of-concept for blockchain-based cross-border payments in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank, or IADB. According to a Thursday announcement, Citigroup’s Citi Innovation Labs and the IADB enabled several disbursements from the United States to a recipient in the Dominican Republic, using the LACChain blockchain network — a proprietary effort by IADB’s regional program LACChain. As part of the project, the IADB deposited tokenized funds denominated in U.S. dollars in a Citi account and transferred the funds using digital wallets, IADB’s blockchain specialist and LACChain technical leader Marcos Allende explained. “After tokenized, these funds …

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the main financial institution of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, has launched DCash. The ECCB announced the launch of its CBDC for the region via a media event held on Wednesday. DCash is the digital version of the Eastern Caribbean dollar — the official currency of the eight countries in the union. However, as announced during the launch, DCash is only available in four of the currency union’s member states: Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Lucia. Wednesday’s launch marked a culmination of the project over two years in development with …

Jamaica is the latest country making concrete efforts towards issuing its own sovereign digital currency. According to a press release by the Bank of Jamaica on Tuesday, eCurrency Mint, a cryptography security company specializing in central bank digital currency issuance has been selected as the technology provider for the sovereign digital currency project. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Jamaica’s central bank invited technology solution providers to submit applications for its CBDC project back in July 2020. At the time, the BoJ clarified that its planned sovereign digital currency would not be based on crypto technology. Based in Ireland, eCurrency Mint …

Antigua and Barbuda’s House of Representatives passed a cryptocurrency regulation bill on May 27. With this bill, they have taken steps towards becoming digital asset-friendly destinations in the Caribbean. The regulatory framework, called “The Digital Assets Business Bill 2020”, aims to regulate crypto companies that establish their operations on the island and provide protection for both exchanges and their customers. Among the critical inputs of the bill is the rule that all digital asset businesses in Antigua and Barbuda must obtain a license for “issuing, selling, or redeeming virtual coins,” operating as a payment service or electronic exchange, providing custodial …