Wyoming State to issue its own stablecoin by July 2025 (Bloomberg)

The U.S. State of Wyoming plans launch its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin as soon as July 2025. The WYST token will be fully backed by US Treasuries, cash and repurchase agreements, and maintain a statutory requirement of no less than 102% capitalization. The income generated through interest income on the reserve assets will be used to fund education and infrastructure. They have been tested on Avalanche, Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Base testnets. in collaboration with token issuance partner LayerZero. [Read more at the Wyoming government]

The effect of instant payments on the banking system (BCB)

A paper published by Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) shows that instant payments (IPSs) may have the unintended consequences of increasing the banking sector’s demand for liquidity. Using banking data and transaction-level payment data from Brazil’s Pix instant payment systems, it finds that banks increased their liquid asset holdings after the adoption of instant payments. These findings arise because the convenience of instant payments to consumers comes at the expense of banks’ ability to delay and net payment flows. The inability to delay payments increases banks’ demand for holding liquid assets over transforming illiquid ones. [Read more at the BCB]

Senator Cruz introduces companion bill to prohibit the Fed from issuing a CBDC (Coin Telegraph)

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill on March 26, 2025 to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). The “Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act,” would prohibit the Fed from offering certain products or services directly to American individuals, a key component of any retail CBDC. The Texas Republican’s bill is similarly worded to the bill introduced by Representative Tom Emmer to the House of Representatives on March 6. [Read more on Ted Cruz’s website]

And 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 john@kiffmeister.com.