Wyoming is trying to beat the Fed to a digital dollar (CNBC)

Wyoming will launch a stablecoin in the first quarter of 2025, backed by short-term U.S. Treasury securities, to give individuals and businesses a faster and cheaper way to transact while creating a new revenue stream for the U.S. state. The state plans to issue the WST token to an exchange so the exchange can issue it to the retail user. There will be a “buffer” in the reserves to account for any potential deviations and full transparency to establish and maintain public trust. Wyoming plans to use several different public blockchains, although it hasn’t specified which ones. The state has set up a website dedicated to the project which can be accessed here. [Read more at CNBC]

Abu Dhabi proposes fiat stablecoin regulatory framework (FintechNews.ae]

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has published Consultation Paper No. 7 of 2024 containing proposals to enhance its regulatory framework to allow the issuance of Fiat-Referenced Tokens (FRTs). It adopts adopt a risk-based and proportionate approach based on appropriate regulatory requirements that incorporate the necessary safeguards to ensure that FRT issuers operate in a safe and sound manner and informed by current practices in leading jurisdictions. The latter include the New York Department of Finance, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. [Read more at the ADGM]

RBI says e-rupee has 5M users, can be phased in gradually (Cointelegraph)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das says that the retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot has over 5 million users and 16 banks participating. Programmability functionalities are also being tested, and new use cases aimed at testing features such as anonymity and offline availability are proposed to be rolled out gradually. He also said that there should not be in any rush to roll out a system-wide CBDC until a comprehensive understanding of its impact on users, on monetary policy, on the financial system and on the economy. Such understanding would emerge from generation of user data in pilots. [Read more at the RBI]

RBI to launch Unified Lending Interface to transform lending space (Business Standard)

The RBI is set to launch the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) that will provide lenders digital access to customer’s financial and non-financial data — including land records — stored in various silos to help them extend frictionless credit, especially to farmers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This cuts down the time taken for credit appraisal, especially for smaller and rural borrowers. The ULI architecture has common and standardized APIs, designed for a ‘plug and play’ approach to ensure digital access to information from diverse sources. This reduces the complexity of multiple technical integrations. [Read more at the RBI]

Moody’s and Elliptic join forces to screen VASPs (Moody’s)

Moody’s and Elliptic have formed a strategic alliance to integrate on-chain blockchain data with traditional off-chain data sources to screen virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The solution leverages Elliptic’s real-time on-chain data, which categorizes the exposure of digital asset transactions to illicit activity and combines this with Moody’s off-chain data within an integrated risk engine. Together, it provides a comprehensive overview of a VASP, helping institutions understand who they are doing business with and the associated risk. [Read more at Moody’s]

Men in crypto less attractive to women than cosplayers, anime buffs (Cointelegraph)

“Women perceive crypto as one of the most unattractive hobbies a man can have, even more so than watching anime, cosplaying or reading comic books, according to a recent survey. Crypto was seen as the ninth-most unattractive hobby for males, the Aug. 24 survey by the Date Psychology blog found, which was a convenience sample of 814 people, 48% of which were female. The authors noted that based on past surveys, their sample population disproportionately includes women of “high social status,” with a high level of education and who are predominately white… The results show that females thought reading was the most attractive hobby for a man (98.2%), followed by knowing or learning a foreign language (95.6%) and playing an instrument (95.4%).” [Read more at Cointelegraph]

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