CBDCs

Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard recently traveled to London, where he engaged with influential policymakers and stakeholders invested in the UK’s blockchain future. The Cardano Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the Cardano blockchain ecosystem. Its primary goals are to drive the adoption of the Cardano platform, shape legislation and […]

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, recently proposed legislation to prevent the Federal Reserve from creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for consumer use. Co-sponsored by Senators Braun (R-Ind.) and Grassley (R-Iowa), the legislation is designed to safeguard financial privacy by […]

Russia’s central bank is launching a digital ruble pilot program, paving the way for the country’s entry into the world of CBDCs. According to a report by Helen Partz for Cointelegraph published earlier today, which cited a report by the news agency TASS, the Bank of Russia is getting ready to launch the first consumer […]

Recently, Dr. Dritan Abazović, who has been the prime minister of Montenegro since 28 April 2022, reported on his meeting with two executives from FinTech firm Ripple. Montenegro is a small country in Southeastern Europe, which is a part of the Balkans. On 14 December 2021, Ivan Boskovic, the former Director of Payment Systems and […]

On Thursday (26 January 2023), Jeremy Hogan, a partner at the American law firm Hogan & Hogan, who has been closely following and commenting on the U.S. SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, explained how the XRP Ledger (XRPL) could work with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The XRP Ledger was created in 2012 by David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur […]

On Monday (28 November 2022), National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which is the central bank of Ukraine, talked about the potential benefits of “E-hryvnia”, an electronic form of the monetary unit of Ukraine. According to the English translation (by Google) of NBU’s press release, yesterday, the NBU “presented to the representatives of banks, non-banking financial institutions […]

On 4 November 2022, Arthur Hayes, Co-Founder and former CEO of BitMEX, said that the programmability of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could take away “the ability to purchase Bitcoin”. In a blog post published two days ago, Hayes explained the difference between CBDCs and the current forms of electronic cash: “A CBDC is government […]

Recently, Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President of Blockchain / Digital Asset Products and Digital Partnerships at Mastercard, explained what his firm is doing to unlock crypto’s “potential to transform the financial system’s infrastructure”. In a blog post published on Wednesday (October 12), Dhamodharan gave examples of things that Mastercard is doing to “turn cryptocurrencies into an […]

In a recent interview, Charles Hoskinson, Founder and CEO of Input Output Global (“IOG”), the blockchain technology firm behind Cardano’s R&D, shared his thoughts on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Here is how Binance Academy explains the concept of CBDCs: “A central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a digital form of fiat currency. As such, […]

Recently, former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal explained why he is bullish on Ripple and the XRPL Ledger (XRPL). Prior to founding macro economic and investment strategy research service Global Macro Investor (GMI) in 2005, Pal co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for global asset management firm GLG Partners (which is now called “Man GLG”). Before that, Pal […]

During an interview published on Tuesday (August 2), Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra shared his thoughts on crypto. His comments were made during an interview with Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz. With regard to crypto, he said: “In the crypto world, we play the role as an on-ramp, with people using our debit and credit products to buy […]

Recently, Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), shared her thoughts on cryptoassets in general and stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in particular. The IMF, which was established on 27 December 1945, “works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries” by “supporting economic policies that […]

On Tuesday (May 31), Matt Hamilton, who is currently Director of Developer Relations at Bittensor, explained why digital asset $XRP has been able to stay among the top 10 cryptoassets by market cap. Between February 2021 and September 2021, Hamilton worked at Ripple as Director of Developer Relations, and between September 2021 and March 2022, […]

Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America’s largest crypto exchange, has announced a partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) to create a project that will explore use cases for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).  The SDF is “a non-profit organization founded in 2014 to support the development and growth of the open-source Stellar network.” The SDF […]

On Sunday (May 22), Christine Lagarde, President of European Central Bank (ECB), made a number of interesting comments about crypto while appearing as a guest on Dutch TV show “College Tour“. The Paris-born French politician, economist, and lawyer has been the ECB President since November 2019. Before then, she served for over eight years as […]

Thomas Jordan, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) talked about Bitcoin in Berne during the central bank’s 114th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on Friday (April 29). The SNB, which has “two head offices one in Berne and one in Zurich, as well as a branch office in Singapore”, […]

On Thursday (April 7), U.S. Treasury Secretary Dr. Janet Yellen gave a speech on “digital assets policy, innovation, and regulation” at American University’s Kogod School of Business Center for Innovation. Below are some key highlights from Yellen’s speech (based on the press release issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury). Yellen started by reminding the attendees […]

Earlier this month, FinTech firm Ripple released a report titled “Crypto Trends in Business and Beyond” about a “blockchain-driven landscape” that it calls the “Internet of Value”. Ripple’s 44-page research report — which “focuses on the role of key blockchain use cases like payments and DeFi, and the token types — often referred to as […]

On Friday (February 11), the Digital Euro Association (DEA) announced that it was “delighted” about a new partnership with FinTech firm Ripple. The Digital Euro Association (DEA) is “a think tank specializing in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, crypto assets, and other forms of digital money.” Its mission is “to contribute to the public […]

In a recent interview, Rahul Advani, APAC Policy Director at Ripple, talked about RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which is powered by digital asset XRP. Advani’s comments were made during an interview with financial news platform Bread. When asked how Ripple plans to “adapt to the growing demand for crypto-based cross-border settlements”, he replied: “A […]

Ukraine’s central bank is supervising a new digital currency pilot program using the Stellar blockchain.  According to a press release by FinTech firm Bitt, it is working with TASCOMBANK, which is one of Ukraine’s oldest commercial banks, on a pilot project to create an electronic version of Ukraine’s national currency “hryvnia” (UAH) on Stellar. As […]

Written by Alexander Vasiliev, co-founder and CCO of the global payment network Mercuryo As the crypto industry matured, stablecoins have become the go-to way for market participants to exchange between “standard” cryptocurrencies and digital assets pegged to fiat currencies. Since anyone can issue a stablecoin, governments worldwide have raised concerns over the potential risks to […]

Recently, FinTech firm Ripple talked about its newly formed partnership with a small Western Pacific nation. In a blog posted published on Tuesday (November 23), Ripple announced “a new partnership with the Republic of Palau to explore the country’s first national digital currency and its use cases with the XRP Ledger (XRPL).” Here is some […]

Written by: Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO  Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have become the center of focus for many governments, seeing as how their integration can fundamentally change existing payments ecosystems worldwide.  CBDCs are operated by respective federal banks and only five countries have deployed their versions of these digital currencies so far […]

California-headquartered FinTech firm Ripple has announced a partnership with the central bank of the Kingdom of Bhutan, which is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas. According to the blog post Ripple published last Wednesday (September 22), the basic idea of this partnership is to help Bhutan’s central bank (aka “Royal Monetary Authority”) “use Ripple’s CBDC […]

Rich Checkan, the President of Asset Strategies International (ASI) is apparently not a fan of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In a recent interview with Michelle Makori, editor-in-chief of Kitco News, Checkan railed against the development and adoption of CBDCs. He said the digital form of money was a threat to individual privacy and opened […]

On Monday (July 26), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) explained in a blog post why it is a bad idea for countries to pass laws to make cryptoassets (such as Bitcoin) national currencies instead of creating their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The IMF, which was established on 27 December 1945, is “an organization of 189 […]

Earlier this week, the CEOs of two of Russia’s largest banks shared their thoughts on Bitcoin. According to a report by Cointelegraph, during a recent interview with local TV channel NTV, Sberbank CEO Herman Gref called Bitcoin “probably the riskiest type of investment alongside the equity market”. Gref said that although putting money in a […]

Written by: Konstantin Anissimov, executive director of the international cryptocurrency exchange CEX.IO. Graduated the Executive MBA program at the University of Cambridge. His area of responsibility at CEX.IO includes customer relationships with institutional and VIP-clients, overseeing the creation of the company’s development strategy, new products, markets and partnerships. As a member of the board of directors, Konstantin is […]

Oystein Olsen, the governor of Norges Bank in Oslo, the central bank of Norway, recently explained why he does not believe that Bitcoin could one day replace money issued by central banks. According to a report published by Bloomberg, he said during a phone interview that Bitcoin is “far too resource-intensive, far too costly and […]

A recent 47-page report—titled “Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs): A Comparative Review”—prepared for professional accounting body CPA Australia by RMIT University “provides a review of the three most-transacted digital currencies – Bitcoin, Ether and XRP.” The report looks at several definitions of CBDCs. Here is one of them: “… possibly issued on a blockchain platform, […]