DBS, Singapore’s largest retail and commercial bank, seems to be entering the cryptocurrency space with three new offerings. According to information seen by Cointelegraph, DBS is launching cryptocurrency trading and custody as well as a platform for conducting security token offerings. A description of the offering and its components appeared briefly on DBS' website before being removed minutes later. DBS’ upcoming crypto service — the DBS Digital Exchange — will support five major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Supported fiat currencies include the United States dollar, the Singapore dollar, the Hong …

The Bahamas, an island nation in the West Indies, made digital currency history on Oct. 20 with the official launch of a new central bank digital currency, the so-called Sand Dollar. It became the first country to roll out a CBDC available to all residents, and while the Bahamas is a small nation — with only 393,000 people — it appears to be an event of some global financial significance. Or is it? “It could be if it succeeds,” Ross Buckley, KPMG-KWM professor of disruptive innovation at University of New South Wales, Sydney, told Cointelegraph. “Other small island nations — …

According to David Birch, fintech guru and author of “The Currency Cold War”, if the U.S. doesn’t ramp up its efforts in the digital currency race, the global dominance of the dollar might soon be under threat. Such a scenario could find central banks around the world (as well as private companies) launching their own digital currencies — Some of which could potentially challenge the dollar in cross border payments and global trade. Birch feels it is unlikely that any of these competitors will replace the dollar as the world’s dominant currency, however. According to his vision, we are more …

The United States will not be issuing a digital dollar until the Federal Reserve resolves all questions around a potential central bank digital currency, or CBDC, according to the Fed's chairman, Jerome Powell. Powell claimed that he is not worried about other countries having a first-mover advantage when it comes to issuing CBDCs. Speaking at a Monday panel on cross-border payments hosted by the International Monetary Fund, Powell said: "We have not made a decision to issue a CBDC, and we think there’s a great deal of work yet to be done. [...] In fact, I actually do think that …

Despite this year’s uncertainty that has plagued the global economy, 2020 will go down as the year of the stablecoins due to the digital sector’s tremendous growth, with new developments emerging across the board. While some attribute this growth to the booming interest in decentralized finance among crypto enthusiasts, others see it as a bullish trend that confirms the inflow of fiat currency to the crypto ecosystem. As the DeFi sector keeps growing, so too does the popularity of stablecoins, used to gain high returns from various decentralized lending projects. Stablecoins are also useful for their ability to bridge the …

Bad news — the increase in the Bitcoin (BTC) price over the past decade may have been overstated because of the accompanying fiat inflation. Since Bitcoin is typically denominated in fiat — United States dollars usually — it is not immune to its depreciation. In the decade that followed the economic crisis, the U.S. enjoyed some of the lowest inflation in history, which hovered around 2% annually. However, over the decade, this added up to almost 20%. Thus, if we use the 2010 dollar as our base and apply its subsequent depreciation to the price of Bitcoin, then the current …

The global economy doesn’t seem to be in a good place right now, especially with countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Spain imposing fresh, new restrictions across their borders, thereby making the future financial prospects of many local business owners even bleaker. As far as the crypto economy goes, on Sept. 21, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped by nearly 6.5% to the $10,300 mark after having stayed put around $11,000 for a few weeks. However, what is interesting to note this time around is the fact that the flagship crypto plunged in value simultaneously with gold and the S&P 500. …

The MIT Digital Currency Initiative, or DCI, is helping the federal reserve bank of Boston build a digital currency with the goal of scaling for consumer use. The DCI’s director Neha Narula told Cointelegraph: “We're trying to build a high throughput, low latency transaction system that could be used by consumers and could handle the security and resilience required for a national currency.” The multi-year collaboration between the two organizations is still in very early stages and not much information is being released to the public. Yet the focus is not on building a newer version of interbank digital ledger, …

Two nations, two visions of the financial future: "The tech cold war is here — and the US isn't winning," wrote Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen in an opinion piece for The Hill recently. According to him, China has “a once-in-a-century opportunity to wrest away American stewardship of the global financial system, including its ultimate goal of replacing the dollar with a digital yuan." Western values of openness and freedom could be lost in this new financial order. Others have sounded similar concerns. “There is a new space race. It is the cyberspace race of building and controlling the systems and …

The United States dollar has started to rebound from a multi-year support level. Simultaneously, the prices of both Bitcoin (BTC) and gold have both dropped off. Additionally, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) warning against the appreciating euro is further catalyzing the dollar’s rally. ECB looks to weaken the euro as the dollar just begins its recovery Bitcoin and gold prices respond negatively to the rising dollar because markets price both assets with the dollar. If the dollar value goes up, the value of BTC relative to the dollar goes down. Since the dollar increased from its monthly open on Sept. …

Eswar Prasad, a professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes that even though China’s digital yuan will enhance the renminbi’s role as an international payment currency, it will “hardly put a dent” in the US dollar’s status as the dominant currency. In an opinion piece published in Project Syndicate, Prasad states that the Chinese government should keep reforming the country’s financial markets and remove restrictions on capital flow to put both China’s CBDC and national cross-border payments system in the global sphere to strengthen its adoption. According to the professor, the …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased by nearly 30% since late June, from $8,905 to just under $11,500 as of press time. Following the strong rally of the dominant cryptocurrency, three macro factors point at an optimistic medium-term trend. These macro factors hint at a positive medium-term to long-term price cycle but suggest that in the near term, momentum will fade and a consolidation phase will happen. As Cathy Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, discussed on the In the Know podcast, there is technically little resistance between $13,000 and BTC’s all-time high of $20,000. Wood noted that BTC might …