SEC sues Binance in US District Court for unregistered securities operations
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed suit against Binance, its U.S. platform and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in the District Court for the District of Columbia. There were 13 charges, including unregistered offers and sales of the BNB and BUSD tokens, the Simple Earn and BNB Vault products and its staking program. In addition, the SEC alleges in the suit that Binance failed to register its Binance.com platform as an exchange or a broker-dealer clearing agency. CZ was sued as a “controlling person.” [Read more at the SEC]
National Bank of Kazakhstan digital tenge project update
Binur Zhalenov, CEO of the Kazakhstan Interbank Settlement Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, provided an update on the three-year digital tenge project. The plan in 2023 is to deliver a production-grade central bank digital currency (CBDC). Pilots will test various specific use cases, starting with building a scalable platform for social aid distribution for the central bank’s government partners. The project aims to provide a scheme that provides business value across the value chain, and there will be several minimum viable products (MVPs) to optimize cross-border payments, wholesale transactions, and distributed ledger technology (DLT) integration. [Read more on LinkedIn]
Project Leap proves the viability of a quantum-safe financial system
The BIS Innovation Hub published a report on Project Leap, a joint project with the Banque de France and Deutsche Bundesbank that addresses the threat that future quantum computers represent to today’s cryptographic algorithms, and thereby to the confidentiality of financial data. The report presents a comprehensive overview of the experiments conducted and the initial technical findings, including the successful set up a quantum-safe communication channel between the project participants that shields financial data. [Read more at the BIS]
*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.
Upcoming conferences, webinars and speaking engagements:
- I’ll be participating in Currency Research’s in-person Central Bank Payments Conference and Global Payments Summit in Cape Town from June 26 to 30. [Register here and here respectively]
- I’ll be lecturing at the Digital Euro Association (DEA) Digital Money Academy on July 27, 2023. [Register here]
Kiffmeister’s global central bank digital currency monthly monitor
Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So for any of you out there who work for a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com.
The Sovereign Official Digital Association (SODA) is a technology-agnostic firm offering advisory services at the intersection of central banking, digital finance and the web3 industry, aiming to make public digital money a reality. SODA believes institutions in the existing financial ecosystem should have access to the tools and resources they need to move from discussion to action. SODA offers ‘real life’ use cases to help test digital money and drive adoption as central banks and other public institutions explore the future of a more financially inclusive world powered by interoperable blockchain-based networks. SODA would love you to join us on this journey – please get in touch (chris@sodapublicmoney.org).
Satoshi Capital Advisors is a New York-based, global advisory firm that works with central banks, governments, and the private sector to architect, implement, and operate varying initiatives. Satoshi Capital Advisors’ central bank work revolves around CBDC architecture and implementation, providing advisory services from research phase through to growth phase. Utilizing a product-market fit and technology agnostic approach to CBDC architecture and implementation enables Satoshi Capital Advisors to build tailored solutions, bespoke to local financial system nuances. Satoshi Capital Advisors welcomes requests from central bank officials for virtual and in-person CBDC workshops. [Click here for more information]
WhisperCash offers the first fully offline digital currency platform that has the same properties as physical cash. It can perform secure consecutive offline payments without compromising on security, privacy or accessibility. WhisperCash allows direct person to person offline payments without any server infrastructure or internet connectivity. It comes in various form factors including the self-contained credit card-sized “Pro” that sports an eInk screen and capacitive keyboard, and lasts for two weeks between recharges assuming a few transactions per day. [Click here for more information]