New Zealand-based financial services company Power Finance plans to launch what it’s calling a “world-first” digital version of the New Zealand dollar. Set to launch early next year, the digital currency will employ distributed ledger technology. The “Power Dollar” is not government-backed, however, and is more akin to a stablecoin such as Tether than a true digital dollar. It is being set up privately and will be backed one-for-one by New Zealand dollars held by Inland Revenue through its tax pooling system. The company is led by former PwC banking and capital markets partner Dave Corbett, and is backed by …

The Centre consortium announced on Thursday that USD Coin (USDC) will soon be available on the Stellar blockchain. This marks the first time that a major stablecoin will be made available on the platform, joining the ranks of Anchor USD, WhiteStandard and some others. USDC is currently the second largest stablecoin in the market behind Tether (USDT). Circle said that USDC is expected to be available on Stellar in Q1 2021. USDC is primarily hosted on Ethereum, which holds virtually the entirety of its supply at $2.7 billion. Algorand was onboarded in June 2020, though it found limited success — …

The Libra Association, which oversees the as-yet unreleased Libra cryptocurrency, has chosen a chief financial officer and chief risk officer for the project. Ian Jenkins, who touts experience from HSBC, Santander, and Credit Suisse, will supervise the Libra Network’s finances and risk management, according to an Oct. 15 announcement. "Ian’s deep expertise in global finance, risk and strategy will be crucial in bringing the Libra vision to life," James Emmett, managing director for Libra Networks, said in the announcement. Emmett, a former HSBC brass himself, joined Libra in September 2020. The news comes only days after the multi governmental group …

The G20’s financial watchdog, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), has published regulatory recommendations opposing the trans-national ambitions of “global stablecoins,” such as Facebook’s Libra project. The FSB’s report offers regulatory recommendations to G20 member states and the broader international community intended to prevent stablecoin projects from using opportunities for "regulatory arbitrage" and becoming embedded within the financial structures of national economies. The report warns that so-called global stablecoins (GSC) could become “systemically important” across jurisdictions, undermining the capacity for governments to dictate monetary and investment policy within their borders. “The decentralized nature of GSC arrangements could pose governance challenges; stabilization …

Tether’s (USDT) stablecoin has been the leading base pair for cryptocurrencies for over eighteen months. This is a rather impressive feat given the ongoing court case with the New York Attorney General and the other frequent rumors that USDT is not sufficiently backed or subject to regulators' reach. USDT has also been the dominant stablecoin in China even though the country banned cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017. This is because large exchanges like Binance, Huobi and OKEx turned to the stablecoin as their leading base pair. It’s also worth noting that competitors like USD Coin (USDC), TrueUSD (TUSD), and Paxos Standard …

Countries representing the world’s largest economies said in a draft of a statement that they would initially oppose the launch of Facebook’s Libra project. According to an Oct. 12 report from Reuters, central bankers and finance ministers from the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and the U.K (also known as the Group of Seven, or G7), said it would halt global stablecoin projects pending appropriate regulatory oversight. The draft stated: “The G7 continues to maintain that no global stablecoin project should begin operation until it adequately addresses relevant legal, regulatory, and oversight requirements through appropriate design and by …

Singapore-based payments company Xfers announced on Monday the official release of its XSGD stablecoin, pegged to the Singapore dollar. The stablecoin would be one of the first Singapore dollar-denominated tokens, giving Singaporean businesses and individuals a way to transact with crypto backed by their national currency. XSGD is launched on the Zilliqa and Ethereum blockchains. The token is launched as part of Xfers’ StraitsX initiative. The stablecoin is said to be Travel Rule-compliant, though Aymeric Salley, head of StraitsX, told Cointelegraph that this primarily involves PSN01 guidelines by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The set of rules primarily deals with …

On Sep 30, DFINITY announced its final milestone release before the network’s public launch later this year. This release, called Sodium, represents a “feature complete” version of the network. The company also disclosed details about their governance system, called Network Nervous System, or NNS. NNS will use a proprietary token called ICP to facilitate operations on its “Internet Computer.” At launch, there will be 469,213,710 ICP tokens in existence — a number determined by the quantity of tokens previously issued via pre-sales and other distribution rounds. While NNS’ most recent fundraising effort offered ICP tokens at a rate of around …

Swipe, a Binance-owned cryptocurrency debit card provider, is expanding its offering with a new crypto Visa card that allows users to borrow funds using blockchain technology. Dubbed the “LendFi Visa Card,” the new product deploys major decentralized finance protocols to provide “near-instant access to lending balances.” The card is integrated with the LendFi app — a decentralized lending platform that is connected with the borrower through their mobile device. At launch, the platform will support major DeFi protocol Compound, a spokesperson for Swipe said. According to an announcement, the new blockchain-based lending platform approves loans for users and disburses them …

A perennial question surrounding blockchain technology is: When will it make a mainstream impact? Understandably, enthusiasts in the industry are anxious to see this technology live up to its promise of empowering consumers, accelerating cross-border payments and bridging the financial inclusion gap for the under- and unbanked. The reality is that today, its scope is limited. From what little data we have available about cryptocurrency adoption, we see that the pool of active users is relatively small in size and scope — largely millennial and largely male. Related: Crypto could save millennials from the economy that failed them Some countries …

YENTS, an unusual stablecoin developed by the Kenya’s Young Entrepreneurs Network (YEN), has entered into testing under the local regulatory sandbox. YEN, which organizes golfing tournaments to facilitate networking opportunities for Kenyan entrepreneurs, plans on initially using the stablecoin as a means of payment for sporting events and training programs. The network’s CEO, Kamau Nyabwengi, told The Africa Report that YEN intends to launch the token in November, and hopes to use it to accept investments into a planned golf course. While the YENTS token has began testing in Kenya’s regulatory sandbox, Nyabwengi argues that significant regulatory changes still need …

The European Commission is moving to provide more legal clarity and certainty for the cryptocurrency industry in its member states. On Sept. 24, the EC officially adopted a new digital finance package including digital finance and retail payments strategies, as well as legislative proposals on crypto assets. The EC said that the new package represents the first time that the authority proposed new legislation on crypto assets. As part of the new legislative proposals, the EC pays special attention to stablecoins — a type of cryptocurrency that pegs value to an external reference like the United States dollar or an …