The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the country's central bank, has released a report outlining use case proposals for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The RBA said on Mar. 2 local time that financial industry participants were also chosen to implement the chosen use cases and were invited to participate in a live pilot that is to take place over the coming months. The use cases proposed by the RBA included offline payments, tax automation and a CBDC for "trusted Web3 commerce." The selected partners for the use case trial ranged from banks, such as Commonwealth Bank and Australia …

Crypto exchange Coinbase has been named as a defendant in a legal complaint brought by NanoLabs — the company behind the digital currency Nano (NANO) — over alleged trademark infringement. In the Feb. 24 filing with the California Northern District Court, NanoLabs alleged Coinbase's Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products infringe on trademark rights owned by them. It’s also alleged the infringement has caused NanoLabs economic detriment and weakened its brand identity, resulting in “actual damage and irreparable harm." Colin LeMahieu founded the Nano digital currency in 2014; which was originally named RaiBlocks. It was rebranded …

The crypto industry will “probably” start using euro, yen, or Singapore dollar based stablecoins in the future, reducing its reliance on US dollar based stablecoins, according to a Feb. 14 statement on Twitter Spaces by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.” CZ gave the statement in answer to a question about the crypto industry using gold as a standard of value instead of the US Dollar. CZ agreed that it “makes sense” to use gold. However, “most people’s costs are still in fiat currencies.” For this reason, most people calculate their investment returns in dollars, which is why …

London-based digital asset protection firm, Coincover, has secured $30 million in a funding round led by Foundation Capital, with a follow-on investment from CMT digital. According to Coincover’s announcement, the funds will be used to scale its operations, drive recruitment, develop new products, and form partnerships to help strengthen the security of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, thereby, providing even more comprehensive protection to businesses and individuals holding digital assets. Coincover was founded in 2018 and launched in 2019 with the aim of providing trust to the digital asset industry. The company already works with over 300 businesses including exchanges, wallets, hedge …

The Indian government doesn’t want to rush its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot despite joining the CBDC race just a few months ago. India’s recently launched CBDC pilot has amassed 50,000 users, and 5,000 merchants since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the digital rupee pilot last year, local news agency The Economic Times reported on Feb. 8. Announcing the first public milestones of India’s digital currency at a policy press conference, RBI deputy governor Rabi Sankar stressed that the government plans to proceed with CBDC testing in the smoothest way possible. “We have our targets in terms …

Millions of dollars worth of China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has been handed out across the country over the Lunar New Year period in a bid to boost its takeup. According to a Feb. 6 report in the Global Times, an English-language outlet of the state-ran People’s Daily newspaper, around 200 “activities” for the e-CNY were launched across the country during the holiday period. These "activities" were made to “promote consumption” — the first of such since the government recently relaxed COVID-19 restrictions. Multiple cities reportedly gave away over $26.5 million, or 180 million yuan worth of the CBDC …

2022 was tough for the crypto market. A recent report published by security services platform Immunefi found that the crypto industry lost a total of $3.9 billion in 2022. Detrimental losses such as these are often concerning for crypto investors, yet there may be a silver lining behind decreasing assets for investors reporting crypto on their taxes. Lisa Greene-Lewis, a certified public accountant at TurboTax, told Cointelegraph that while crypto investors made huge gains in 2021, this changed drastically in 2022. “We have seen a crypto winter occur, and TurboTax wants to help investors cope with their losses,” she said. …

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio has described fiat currency as being in serious “jeopardy” as an effective store of wealth but doesn’t believe Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins will be the solution either. Dalio, the founder of hedge fund firm Bridgewater Associates explained on CNBC Squawk Box on Feb. 2 that the mass money printing of the United States ollar and other reserve currencies has him questioning whether they are forms of “effective money.” “We are in a world in which money as we know it is in jeopardy. We are printing too much, and it's not just the United States, it …

Recent charges brought against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg will have a positive impact on the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, according to credit rating firm Moody’s. In a Jan. 31 note from Moody’s Investor Service, AVP of decentralized finance Cristiano Ventricelli stated that enforcement actions brought by the two leading U.S. market regulators in January mean that DeFi is moving towards a “safer and more welcoming environment.” “The fact that both the SEC and CFTC took action against market manipulation by an alleged rogue trader is a credit positive for the industry as a whole. Ventricelli stated that these actions …

Blockchain startup accelerator Cronos Labs has announced the opening of applications for its second cohort of the $100 million-backed Cronos Accelerator Program. The program, which begins on April 24, 2023, will last for 12 weeks and provide selected projects with upfront seed funding of $30,000. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to secure up to $300,000 in seed funding from Cronos Labs and receive mentoring, masterclasses and support from industry experts. The program is focused on the decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, SocialFi, and Infrastructure verticals and will accept applications until March 24, 2023. The selection of projects for the …

The digital euro, should it come into existence, will preserve the role of the central bank by extending payment options beyond those offered by cash, European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Fabio Panetta told a European Parliament committee Jan. 23. Panetta expressed satisfaction with the progress of research on a potential digital euro. He told the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee: “The ECB is at the global forefront of the efforts by central banks to design state-of-the-art digital payment solutions for both retail and wholesale transactions.” Access to the digital euro would initially be open to consumers, …

A Hong Kong-based blockchain company has launched a digital payments system aimed at bridging the gap between stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Red Date Technology, the blockchain infrastructure firm which is also leading one of China’s blockchain efforts, launched the Universal Digital Payment Network (UDPN) on Jan. 19 during the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 meeting in Davos, Switzerland. According to its whitepaper, the UDPN is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform that would serve a similar purpose to what the SWIFT network does for banks, but for stablecoins and CBDCs. Tech engineering company GFT Technologies and the …