Authorities from the Hainan province in southern China have vowed to increase oversight on the nonfungible token (NFT) sector to “promote the healthy development” of the sector and to stomp out fraud and other associated risks. In a separate announcement, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) also announced that it is working on new features for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program, referred to as the digital yuan or eCNY. NFT oversight In a public notice posted on Jan. 29, Hainan’s market regulator and nine other agencies from the province outlined a lengthy plan to tackle the NFT …

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazović has announced on Twitter that his country is pursuing a digital currency in conjunction with Ripple. Abazović met with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and vice president James Wallis at Davos. Wallis is Ripple's vice president for central bank engagements and CBDCs. Abazović apparently had something like a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in mind in his announcement, as he stated in the thread: “In cooperation with @Ripple and the Central Bank, we launched a pilot project to build the first digital currency or stablecoin for Montenegro.” The exact nature of the potential future digital currency …

The UK Government's economic and finance ministry, HM Treasury, is recruiting for a Head of central bank digital currency (CBDC) to lead the development of a digital pound. The work is described as "Important, complex, and cross-cutting" and will "require extensive engagement across and beyond the HM Treasury." According to the Linkedin post, the Treasury and the Bank of England are working together through the CBDC Taskforce to explore the case for a digital pound. The role of the Head of CBDC may bring the UK government closer to its aim of rolling out a CBDC. Danny Scott, CEO of …

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) is ramping up its research into Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) but is yet to announce a deployment. In a Jan. 23 bulletin, the bank stated it was working on a phase of a project that “focuses on domestic wholesale CBDC use cases in collaboration with local banks and fintechs.” However, it confirmed there had been no final decision to launch such a digital currency in the Middle Eastern nation. “SAMA stresses that although no decision has been made regarding the introduction of CBDC in the Kingdom, it continues to focus on exploring the benefits …

The chief executive of credit card giant Visa remains confident that blockchain-powered solutions can be integrated into its services and offerings to power the next generation of payments. Speaking on a call at Visa’s annual stockholder meeting on Jan. 24, outgoing CEO Al Kelly — who will officially step down on Feb. 1 — briefly shared the firm’s plans for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and private stablecoins. According to a Jan. 24 report from San Francisco Business Times, Kelly said: “It’s very early days, but we continue to believe that stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies have the potential …

HM Treasury in the United Kingdom has begun calling for applicants to lead the central bank digital currency team behind efforts towards a digital pound. In a job posted to LinkedIn on Jan. 24, the U.K. Treasury called for a team lead for its Payments and Fintech Team of roughly 20 people focused exploring on a “potential digital pound”. According to the posting, the CBDC head would determine the “strategic direction” for Treasury’s efforts to develop a digital currency in line with the government’s agenda, as well as analyze potential policy issues for lawmakers. “Treasury and the Bank of England …

Over the last couple of years, numerous reports have surfaced regarding governments worldwide exploring the issuance of their very own central bank digital currency. In fact, to date, nine countries have rolled out an active CBDC offering. In this regard, China’s digital yuan witnessed widespread use during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Other countries that have initiated similar projects include the Bahamas, the Marshall Islands and Nigeria. However, it is being reported that Nigeria’s eNaira has witnessed poor uptake so far, and the others have fared somewhat similarly. Moreover, India too has launched a pilot scheme for its digital rupee, while …

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 …

The small Nordic country of Norway may not be particularly notable on the global crypto map. With its 22 blockchain solution providers, the nation doesn’t stand out even at the regional level. However, as the race to test and implement central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) accelerates every day, the Scandinavian nation is taking an active stance on its own national digital currency. In fact, it was among the first countries to begin the work on a CBDC back in 2016. Dropping cash In recent years, amid a rise in cashless payment methods and concern over cash-enabled illicit transactions, some Norwegian …

China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — the digital yuan, or eCNY — has received upgrades giving it smart contract functionality alongside a series of newly unveiled use cases. The smart contract function was launched on the Meituan app, a Chinese app offering retail and food delivery services, according to a Jan. 17 report by local cryptocurrency media outlet 8btc. When Meituan users place an order and pay with their e-CNY wallet, a smart contract triggers and searches for keywords and purchased items in their order. If a user buys something on the list of keywords for the day, they …

The Digital Dollar Project (DDP) released a new version of its white paper "Exploring a U.S. CBDC" on Jan. 18. The project expanded the paper in order to examine central bank digital currency projects internationally, though its focus is still on the United States. The DDP introduced its “champion model” of an intermediated wholesale and retail CBDC in the first version of the paper in May 2020. Since that time, CBDC projects worldwide have increased from 35 to 114. The updated DDP paper retained the core tenets of the champion, such as those on privacy and monetary policy, and it …