National Bank of Kazakhstan Launches Digital Tenge Hub Dialogue Platform
The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) announced that the next step in its “Digital Tenge” central bank digital currency (CBDC) project will be to involve stakeholders and international partners in discussions about design and pilot scenarios. In that regard, the NBK has launched a Digital Tenge Hub dialogue platform to provide training and certification of market participants, conduct design sessions to discuss methodological aspects, as well as connect new participants to test scripts on the Digital Tenge platform. It will be open to all market participants. The overall plan is, by July 2022, to develop a model to inform a decision to launch a digital tenge (or not) by the end of 2022. [Read more]
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Signs Virtual Assets Bill Into Law, Legalizing Crypto
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed into law a bill that defines the legal status, classification, ownership and regulators of virtual assets, and sets registration requirements for crypto services providers. The bill passed through parliament on February 17 after Zelensky rejected an earlier version approved in September 2021. The market will be regulated by Ukraine’s National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market. Exchanges will be able to operate legally, and banks will open accounts for them. Ukraine has received at least $100 million in crypto donations over the past three weeks from people who want to support its defense and help fund humanitarian efforts. [Read more]
El Salvadoran MSMEs Not Seeing Much Bitcoin Action
According to a Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador, 91.7% of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) surveyed in January said that bitcoin implementation has been indifferent for their business, and 86% report that they have not made sales using the crypto-asset. These percentages are compared with only 3.6% of those surveyed who said that bitcoin has contributed to increasing their sales, and 13.9% who report having made sales in bitcoin. In September 2021, El Salvador adopted bitcoin as a legal tender and gave away $30 in bitcoin to everyone who signed up for the Chivo (“Cool”) wallet app in an effort to encourage adoption. [Read more]
