Russia’s central bank is reportedly set to begin developing a cross-border settlement system using its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) amid ongoing sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The plans to move forward with Russia’s digital ruble are expected to come in the first quarter of 2023 and will see Russia's central bank study two possible cross-border settlement models, according to a Jan. 9 report from local media outlet Kommersant. The first proposed model sees various countries entering into separate bilateral agreements with Russia to integrate their CBDC systems. Each agreement would be made to ensure the conversion …

Mexico's central bank digital currency (CBDC) development is still in an initial phase, and it is unlikely to be ready for launch by 2024. According to local media reports, Mexico's central bank, known as Banxico, is currently working on legal, administrative, and technological requirements for the peso's digital version. The first of three stages for the proposed launch timeline. In December 2021, the local government announced its plan to introduce a national digital currency, noting on a Twitter post that the "new technologies and next-generation payment infrastructure" would improve Mexico's financial inclusion and project the launch for 2024. A year …

European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Fabio Panetta has been a vocal supporter of central bank digital currency (CBDC) and cryptocurrency sceptic, and he presented his latest argument for CBDC on Jan. 5. Writing on the official ECB blog, he said that, by developing CBDCs, central banks “will safeguard the trust on which private forms of money ultimately depend.” Panetta began his argument with a harsh appraisal of cryptocurrency in 2022. “Last year marked the unravelling of the crypto market as investors moved from the fear of missing out to the fear of not getting out,” he said. That …

Hong Kong authorities are looking for new designs for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), now proposing to issue a CBDC in the form of a stablecoin backed by the government. Wu Jiezhuang, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, believes that turning the Hong Kong digital dollar (e-HKD) into a stablecoin would provide benefits for the adoption of new technologies like Web3. The option of developing e-HKD into a stablecoin has the potential to address the risks associated with virtual assets in Web3 effectively, Wu Jiezhuang said in an interview with China Blockchain …

Companies that applied to win over the $244,000 contract to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet proof of concept (PoC) for the Bank of England (BOE) provided questions about the project. In response, the central bank published its answers to over 70 questions. On Dec. 9, the BOE opened applications asking suppliers to submit applications. About 20 companies submitted their applications and handed in their questions before Dec. 25. Following this, the BOE published the questions asked by the competing providers and gave its answers that aimed to offer insights into the project. According to the BOE, it …

When it comes to the “crypto” part of cryptocurrencies, David Chaum’s work predates the crypto ecosystem. His efforts as a renowned cryptographer date back to 1989, long before Bitcoin (BTC) was a thing. Chaum developed the protocols that act as the basis of DigiCash — the world’s first digital currency secured by cryptography. As the CEO of privacy-focused network developer Elixxir, David Chaum is working with the Swiss central bank to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could also attract the crypto ecosystem due to its privacy features. Named eCash 2.0, the new project aims to develop digital …

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has completed the first trial of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Turkish Lira, and has signaled plans to continue testing throughout 2023. According to a statement released by the CBRT on Dec. 29, the central bank authority said it successfully executed its “first payment transactions” using the digital Lira. It said it will continue to run limited, closed circuit pilot tests with technology stakeholders in the first quarter of 2023, before expanding it to include selected banks and financial technology companies in the rest of the year. Press …

A former official of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, has expressed disappointment that China’s digital yuan is seeing little use. Xie Ping, a former PBOC research director and current finance professor at Tsinghua University, made critical public comments about China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a recent university conference, according to a Dec. 28 Caixin report. Xie noted that cumulative digital yuan transactions had only crossed $14 billion (100 billion yuan) in October, two years after launch. “The results are not ideal,” he said, adding that “usage has been low, highly inactive.” Despite the …

China’s wallet app for its digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) introduced a feature for users to send money in an electronic version of traditional “red packets” to try to attract new users. The new feature was released over the weekend, around one month ahead of the Chinese New Year on Jan. 22, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Dec. 26. The “red packets,” called hongbao in China, are traditionally used for gifting money around the Chinese New Year and other celebrations as a gesture of good luck. The rising use of digital payments has seen …

This year has been a particularly tumultuous one for the crypto market, with many decentralized and centralized entities failing or struggling to stay afloat. It feels as though we are in the final stages of the bear market, with bad actors and practices being purged in a process that is both dramatic and necessary for the maturity of the entire system. Despite this, the Web3 technologies that emerge from this crypto winter will change everything. Web3 represents the next evolution of information exchange, with similarities to the transformation from a largely agricultural society to a more industrial one. It is …

Project Hamilton, the research project of the United States Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced its conclusion in the runup to Christmas. The two-year project looked at the technical aspects of a hypothetical United States digital dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC). “Project Hamilton took critical early steps toward a deeper understanding of how money might work better for all,” Boston Fed executive vice president Jim Cunha said in a statement announcing the conclusion of the project. In February, the technologically “agnostic” project released a white paper and open-source research software called OpenCBDC in …

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) could potentially find some mutually beneficial interactions with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to one industry executive. While crypto is often associated with financial freedom, the concept of CBDC is frequently seen as the exact opposite. But this doesn’t mean that there cannot be a balance between the two, according to Itai Avneri, chief operating officer and deputy CEO at the crypto trading platform INX. CBDCs and regulated cryptocurrencies could potentially complement each other in the future as the two types of digital currencies have their own benefits, Avneri said in an interview with Cointelegraph …