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In This Issue
Eastern Europe
â¢CBDC: Next step for Russia’s digital rouble is settlement with China
â¢PERSPECTIVE: Russian lawyers and fintech executive opine on Russia’s use of Bitcoin for cross-border payments
Asia
â¢CBDC: Pilot with Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and UAE ‘successful’
â¢ADOPTION: Kazakhstan completes first crypto transaction with local currency
Latin America
â¢PERSPECTIVE: “The financial sector doesn’t see a 100% decentralized world” – Regulatory Director, Central Bank of Brazil
â¢ADOPTION: Brazil’s SEC President says crypto is a ‘Revolution’ for Brazil
Africa
â¢CBDC: Ghana’s CBDC focused on financial inclusion
â¢MARKET ENTRY: Binance restarts operations in South Africa
Eastern Europe
CBDC: Next step for Russia’s digital rouble is settlement with China (2 minute read)
As the world shuns Russia for its war in Ukraine, the country is on the hunt for an alternative mean of conducting international transactions since they’ve been cut off from SWIFT. In an interview with Russia’s parliamentary newspaper, the head of the financial committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, Anatoly Aksakov, said that the next step for Russia’s CBDC is for mutual settlements with China. He added that the digital rouble will allow Russia to bypass SWIFT, and some central bank experts have suggested that new technologies like CBDCs will allow more countries to deal with each other directly without SWIFT.
PERSPECTIVE: Russian lawyers and fintech executive opine on Russia’s use of Bitcoin for cross-border payments (4 minute read)
Russia will probably not use Bitcoin for cross-border transactions according to local Russian lawyers and fintech executives. Elena Klyuchareva, the senior associate at the local law firm KKMP, commented that Bitcoin is too “hard to control” and Eduard Davydov, the senior partner at Emet Law Firm indicated that Bitcoin is vulnerable to sanctions. Sergey Mendeleev, CEO and co-founder of InDeFi Smart Bank, believes that Bitcoin would only be a good choice for cross-border payments if the digital currency was less volatile.
Want more Eastern Europe news?
â¢Blockchain could help anonymously document war crimes
â¢Moscow Exchange Suggests Issuing Crypto Receipts
â¢The Central Bank said that non-residents will not immediately be able to open digital ruble wallets
Asia
CBDC: Pilot with Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and UAE ‘successful’ (2 minute read)
The Bank of International Settlements have deemed a pilot between the central banks of Hong Kong, Thailand, China, and UAE, with 20 commercial banks from those regions, ‘successful’. Using the platform mBridge, short for Multiple CBDC Bridge, the central banks transacted $22mm in cross-border transactions after the month long trial. The project now moves on to its final stage before a MVP is put to market.
Kazakhstan has completed its first crypto transaction with local currency as the country continues to move forward to becoming a regional crypto hub according to its president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Last summer Kazakhstan launched a pilot project between Kazakh banks and crypto exchanges licensed by the Astana International Financial Center. The goal of the pilot is to test opening accounts for local crypto-exchanges and their clients with Kazakhstani banks.
Want more Asia news?
â¢Cryptocurrency crowd shrugs off market woes at upbeat TOKEN2049 conference
â¢Do Kwon denies cashout allegations
â¢Emirates to Hire 4,000 New Cabin Crew to be Trained in the Metaverse
â¢Nomura invests in Fnality institutional blockchain payments platform
Latin America and The Caribbean
Brazil’s Central Bank’s regulatory director, Otávio Damaso, doesn’t believe the future of the cryptoeconomy will be 100% decentralized. According to the director, “the crypto world was born to challenge the ‘status quo’ and today it wants regulation to scale”. Regarding Brazil’s CBDC that is being built, Damaso said, “the digital real will not necessarily be a retail currency and will have a stronger presence in wholesale operations” and Brazil’s instant payment system, Pix, already offers the functions that could be implemented with a CBDC.
Brazil’s SEC president, João Pedro Nascimento, is optimistic about crypto and said that âcryptoeconomics cannot be seen as something negative; it is a revolution” and presents an opportunity to develop Brazil’s economy and capital markets. Despite the recent opposition the SEC has expressed towards the regulatory framework being debated in Brazil’s lower house, Nascimento expressed general support for the framework in order to establish base legislation for cryptocurrency regulation. The SEC president compared crypto assets and tokenization to the emergence of the automobile and said, âwe have the opportunity to take the economy to another dimension, the digital dimension.â
Want more Latin America and Caribbean news?
â¢Crypto Loans Are Booming in Latin America Amid Runaway Bank Rates and Inflation
â¢Campos Neto: We are moving to a âtokenizedâ economy where data will interact in the metaverse
â¢âFinancial aggregator that will include cryptos could be ready in up to three yearsâ, says BC (Portuguese)
â¢New Asset invests BRL 10 million in Bitcoin mining company founded by Brazilian in Argentina (Portuguese)
Africa
CBDC: Ghana’s CBDC focused on financial inclusion (2 minute read)
During the Africa Money & DeFi Summit, the Head of Fintech and Innovation at the Bank of Ghana, Kwame Oppong, commented that the goal of Ghana’s CBDC is financial inclusion. Oppong talked about an offline CBDC pilot where users were able to buy products and services from merchants without internet connectivity. He also highlighted that the data generated by users can be used to help people become eligible for loans if they choose to provide the information to local banks.
MARKET ENTRY: Binance restarts operations in South Africa (1 minute read)
Last year South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority notified Binance that it wasn’t authorized to offer options, margins, crypto futures, and leveraged tokens in South Africa. A year after halting operations, Binance has announced that that they’re relaunching their cryptocurrency futures business. The company will also continue to offer its derivatives products through Brickhouse Trading Ltd., one of Binance’s group of companies.
Want more Latin America and Caribbean news?
â¢Polygon Announces Inaugural Web3 African Bootcamp
â¢NEAR Protocol Foundation Allocates Roughly $11 Million to the Kenya Regional Hub (Sankore2.0)
Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!
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Written by Jon Lira. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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