Category: Deposit Tokens

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260702)

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A Unified Ledger in Practice: Lessons from Project Hangang (BoK)

Bank of Korea (BoK) Governor Hyun Song Shin presented a paper outlining the experiences and implications of “Project Hangang” at the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal. The paper argues that Hangang shows a unified ledger can implement tokenized reserves and deposits at scale while preserving a two‑tier monetary system and singleness of money, but only via specific architectural choices and unresolved institutional reforms. The project runs a permissioned digital currency system with wholesale central bank money natively issued on-ledger, burn‑and‑issue interbank transfers, and a strict separation of fungible currency tokens from a programmable voucher layer. Phase I demonstrated live retail and programmable public‑voucher use cases for around 80,000 users, but with crude, offline reconciliation to BOK‑Wire+ and pre‑funded liquidity. Phase II scales to ongoing operation and fiscal disbursements, while future work centers on tokenized government bonds, 24/7 intraday liquidity and cross‑border linkage via Project Agorá, contingent on clarifying the legal status of wholesale claims and the integrated liquidity framework. [ECB]

Financial Market Infrastructures Evolution in a Tokenized Economy (IMF)

The IMF published a paper by Cabedo, Mancini-Griffoli, Schar and Zhang that argues tokenization will reconfigure, rather than eliminate, financial market infrastructures by shifting deterministic lifecycle functions into smart contracts while preserving institutional responsibility for governance, legal certainty, and discretionary risk management. The paper maps issuance, clearing, settlement, and reporting onto single, common, and compatible ledger architectures, showing where atomic on‑chain execution can replace current post‑trade processes and where off‑chain or multi‑ledger coordination still dominates. It highlights new risks—smart‑contract design failures, oracle and bridge dependencies, governance concentration, and privacy trade‑offs—alongside persistent needs for central counterparties, depositories, and trade repositories to manage defaults, loss mutualization, finality, and supervisory access. The central unresolved issue is how law and regulation will define authoritative ledgers, recognize blockchain settlement, and specify accountable entities in hybrid FMI models. [IMF]

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260622)

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Bank of England Policy Statement and Draft Rules on Regulating Systemic Stablecoins (BoE)

The Bank of England (BoE) published a policy statement and draft code of practice for systemic stablecoin issuers, reflecting extensive engagement with industry and stakeholders that resulted in targeted revisions to the proposals consulted on in 2025. The maximum share held in short-term U.K. government debt has been increased from 60% to 70%, with the remainder in central bank deposits. Also, a temporary issuance guardrail will apply to each systemic stablecoin, initially set at £40 billion, dropping the holding limits (£20,000 on individuals and £10 million on corporations) proposed in the 2025 draft. However, the BoE will ban issuers (directly or indirectly) from paying interest or dividends directly to users for simply holding stablecoins, but will permit activity-based rewards, similarly to the U.S. CLARITY Act currently winding its way through Congress. The BoE is also considering offering a backstop lending facility for eligible, solvent, and viable systemic stablecoin issuers, which would allow them to borrow against short-term sterling-denominated UK government debt securities in a limited set of circumstances. [BoE]

Bank of Korea Digital Currency to Connect with Bank Account Networks (Electronic Times)

Korea’s Electronic Times reports that, as part of Project Han River Phase 2, participating banks are integrating deposit-token infrastructure with their core banking ledgers inside the Bank of Korea (BOK) Naver Cloud test environment. Under the architecture, the BOK issues wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) to banks as the interbank settlement asset, while banks issue deposit tokens that users spend via bank-app wallets. The new work links deposit tokens to core deposit, transfer, and accounting systems, including interest accrual and payment, and builds treasury-voucher systems for programmable government subsidy disbursement. Sources frame this as a pre-institutionalization step, moving from “can it settle payments” to “can it run inside production banking systems.” [Electronic Times]

BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260605)

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Macau Banks execute $160 million Cross-Border Transactions on First Day of mBridge Participation (AMCM)

The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) joined the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge (mBridge) earlier this year (2026) and officially launched the system on June 2. Three local commercial banks processed 23 cross-border transactions totaling nearly 13 billion patacas ($160 million), mainly for trade settlement and remittances linking Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. The launch constitutes Macau’s initial live deployment of central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure for cross-border settlement and follows the MAM’s accession as a full mBridge member in a project explicitly positioned to enable multi-currency payments without intermediation by the U.S. dollar. Early operations were technically stable, with eight additional licensed banks still in onboarding. [AMCM]

Major US Banks to Launch Tokenized Deposit Network in 2027 (Finextra)

JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo reportedly plan a shared blockchain network for tokenized deposits, targeting launch in early 2027. The platform tokenizes commercial bank deposits on a closed-loop, netted infrastructure broadly analogous to existing deposit clearing, but upgraded to 24/7 availability and native programmability. Strategically, it is a defensive response to open-loop stablecoins and cross‑border tokenized‑deposit offerings that enable balances to exit the banking system and settle globally on weekends and off-hours. The key unresolved issues are whether this consortium rail delivers incremental functionality beyond today’s clearing and real‑time payment systems, and how its closed architecture will compete with, or interoperate with, global stablecoin networks. [Finextra]

Even in Stablecoins, Europe Finds a Way to do it in Pieces (Blockstories)

Bancomat is positioning Eur.Bank as a euro stablecoin embedded in the domestic card and account‑to‑account network, with reserves deliberately booked on issuing banks’ balance sheets rather than in segregated custody, so that liquidity never leaves the traditional banking system. Nine Bancomat member banks will test interbank transactions, effectively treating Eur.Bank as a shared settlement instrument across participants. The overlap between Bancomat’s Eur.Bank banks and the Qivalis consortium underlines Italy’s strategy of running parallel design experiments on reserve treatment and balance‑sheet integration rather than converging early on a single stablecoin architecture. [Blockstories]

BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260421)

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Bank of Korea’s New Governor Vows to Push CBDC and Deposit Tokens (The Block)

Bank of Korea’s new Governor and ex-BIS Chief Economist, Hyun Song Shin, used his inauguration speech to pledge support for expanding central bank digital currency (CBDC) and bank-issued deposit tokens through the second phase of Project Hangang and cooperation with global initiatives like BIS’s Project Agora to strengthen the won’s role in digital payments, while emphasizing price stability amid external shocks. He conspicuously omitted any reference to won-pegged stablecoins even as lawmakers, backed by President Lee Jae-myung, work on a Digital Asset Basic Act to legally frame local stablecoins, and major financial firms prepare related products, with the bill’s progress delayed until after June regional elections. [The Block]

Launch of POC for digital collateral management using JGBs (JSCC)

Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) will run a proof of concept (POC) with Mizuho, Nomura and Digital Asset to use Japanese government bonds (JGBs) as onchain collateral on the Canton Network, testing whether JGBs can be transferred and managed digitally while retaining their legal status and enabling 24/7, potentially cross-border, real-time collateral transactions under existing Japanese law. The trial, backed by Japan’s Financial Services Agency under its Payment Innovation Project, aims to inform how one of the world’s largest sovereign bond markets could support digital collateral processes without changing current legal and supervisory frameworks, and follows earlier Canton pilots with tokenized US Treasuries and parallel UK experiments with digital gilts in the Bank of England’s Digital Securities Sandbox. [JSCC]

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260416)

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Factors that Promote Adoption and Use of a CBDC Wallet in Peru (IDEAS)

Banco Central de Reserva del Perú (BCRP) economists examined the determinants of adoption and usage of Peru’s retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, implemented through Viettel’s BiPay digital wallet beginning in October 2024, focusing on eight regions with low financial inclusion. Based on individual-level survey data, active CBDC usage was positively associated with awareness of the BCRP’s role in the pilot, wallet satisfaction, knowledge of functionalities, and prior digital wallet use, while self-employment was negatively associated, plausibly due to the pilot’s closed-loop, non-interoperable design. Targeted advertising significantly increased merchant adoption, active user counts, and bill payment volumes, with merchant network expansion identified as a key transmission channel. The authors conclude that retail CBDC scaling requires attention to both sides of the payment market — user-facing communication and financial incentives on the demand side, merchant onboarding on the supply side — with interoperability remaining a persistent structural barrier to broader adoption. [IDEAS]

South Korean Government to Test Tokenized Deposits on Disbursements (MOEF)

South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) will run a regulatory sandbox pilot in Sejong City to use distributed ledger technology (DLT) based tokenized bank deposits for day‑to‑day government operational spending, testing preset time, amount, and category controls on expenses to improve oversight and reduce misuse, with legal and regulatory changes and nationwide rollout targeted from Q4 2026 as part of a broader plan to digitize around a quarter of treasury disbursements by 2030, building on an earlier tokenized‑deposit subsidy pilot for EV charging infrastructure. https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-pilot-tokenized-deposits-government-spending [MOEF]

Tether Launches tether.wallet Self-Custodial Digital Wallet (Tether)

Tether has launched tether.wallet, a self‑custodial digital wallet intended to extend its stablecoin‑based payment infrastructure directly to end users in over 160 countries. The product aggregates access to Tether’s digital dollars (USD₮, USA₮), gold (XAU₮), and Bitcoin across multiple networks, abstracts away gas‑token management, and enables transfers via simple human‑readable identifiers, reducing frictions that have limited previous wallet adoption. This move potentially deepens dollarization dynamics in high‑inflation and underbanked jurisdictions while bypassing bank‑intermediated channels. [Tether]

Central Banks of UAE and Philippines Agree to Link Instant Payment Systems (CBUAE)

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support broader cooperation on financial infrastructure and payments connectivity. This includes working to integrate their instant payment platforms to enable seamless cross-border payment transactions. The MoU also provides for collaboration on central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives, including sharing expertise on the development of CBDC platforms for individuals and institutions. [CBUAE]

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260405)

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Is Nigeria’s eNaira Dead? (Cryptonews)

[October 22, 2025] Nigeria’s eNaira has effectively slipped into a quiet death, with official channels and infrastructure fading away even as authorities stop short of formally killing the project. The mobile apps have disappeared from major app stores, the USSD access channel no longer works, leaving users locked out or unable to complete basic actions. And the eNaira’s official website returns a “404 Web Site not found” message and the official social media presence has been silent since 2023. [Cryptonews]

Question to readers: Should the eNaira be classified as “canceled” in the CBDCTracker.org database? The story above is old, but everything it says is now current.

Innovations and the Layering of Money and Payments (SAFE)

In a Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) working paper, Ulrich Bindseil argues that technological innovation is reshaping but not abolishing the hierarchical “layering” of money and payment ledgers, with central bank money remaining the ultimate anchor. He develops a typology of ledger layers and balance‑sheet structures, then applies it to central bank digital currency (CBDC), instant payment systems, public blockchains, tokenized multi‑asset platforms, expanded non‑bank access to central bank accounts, and stablecoins, finding that most proposals reorganize tiers rather than create a genuinely flat architecture. This matters because optimal layering balances efficiency, risk allocation, and governance: central banks should preserve singleness of money via a senior public ledger while selectively widening access and modernizing regulation to manage new operational and financial risks. The key unresolved question is how far to extend base‑layer access and programmability without undermining the advantages of a two‑tier banking system or overburdening central banks’ risk‑management role. [SAFE vis SSRN]

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260401)

~ kiffmeister

The Eurosystem’s Comprehensive Payments Strategy (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) set out the Eurosystem’s comprehensive two pronged payments strategy, defining its vision for the evolution of European payments under rapid technological change. The first prong is upgrading core infrastructures such as T2, the real time gross settlement backbone for high value and time critical payments during business days, and TIPS, the 24/7 Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) instant retail settlement layer, while developing distributed ledger technology based wholesale settlement via Pontes and Appia. The second prong is a retail digital euro, with tokenized deposits and regulated, EU governed stablecoins in a complementary role. The strategy links tokenization choices to preserving the singleness of money, monetary sovereignty, and financial stability, reduces dependence on non European schemes, and embeds strategic autonomy and cyber resilience into core infrastructures and retail acceptance layers. It also promotes deeper integration of cross border and corporate payments through instant payments, standardization, and interlinking fast payment systems. [ECB]