I’m currently in Bhutan as part of an Asian Development Bank (ADB) team advising the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) on the next steps in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) explorations.
Bank of Korea to start CBDC infrastructure pilot
The Bank of Korea (BOK) is launching a CBDC pilot that will include private banks and public institutions, while the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) providing technical support. It will assess the viability of a future monetary system grounded on wholesale CBDCs, with key motivations to include testing wholesale CBDC as a settlement asset for commercial bank tokenized deposits, and exploring the BIS Unified Ledger concept. Banks will issue payment instruments in the form of tokenized deposits – that will be accessible to the general public – within the “CBDC network” established by the BOK, using distributed ledger technology (DLT), and managed by the BOK, Financial Services Commission, and the Financial Supervisory Service. [Read more at the BOK]
Bank of Ghana announces the launch of an eCedi hackathon
Bank of Ghana (BoG) in collaboration with EMTECH has launched an eCedi hackathon, to provide opportunities for Fintechs, developers and innovators to design innovative solutions that explore various use cases of a CBDC. The event is set to run for 12 weeks, during which innovators will brainstorm to come up with solutions to address financial inclusion challenges in Ghana. The proposed innovations are expected to leverage eCedi tokens and APIs to prototype solutions or develop tools that address various use cases. [Read more at the BoG]
SEC’s motion to appeal loss in Ripple case Is denied
District Judge Analisa Torres has rejected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) bid to appeal its loss against Ripple. The judge had previously ruled in July that while Ripple violated federal securities laws in selling XRP to institutional investors directly, it had not done so by making XRP available to retail customers through programmatic sales to exchanges. Torres said that the SEC’s appeal had failed to meet its burden under the law to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there are substantial grounds for differences of opinion. The judge set an April 2024 trial date for other issues that still need resolution. [Read more at Coindesk]
*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.
Kiffmeister’s 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 (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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).
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