The comments from European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde drew overwhelming backlash from the crypto community and political influencers. European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde released a statement on Friday touting the digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a unifying force in the European Union (EU) and said the ECB is aiming to launch it “as early as possible.” “As much as banknotes will continue to circulate, we want cash to be in the form of a digital euro as well,” Lagarde said, adding that the central bank digital currency could be used for online payments in the EU. She continued: The ECB governing council announced on Thursday that it will move ahead with building the technical infrastructure to test and deploy a retail CBDC, slated to begin rolling out in 2029, if EU lawmakers pass legislation allowing the ECB to issue it. Read more
The comments from European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde drew overwhelming backlash from the crypto community and political influencers. European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde released a statement on Friday touting the digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as a unifying force in the European Union (EU) and said the ECB is aiming to launch it “as early as possible.” “As much as banknotes will continue to circulate, we want cash to be in the form of a digital euro as well,” Lagarde said, adding that the central bank digital currency could be used for online payments in the EU. She continued: The ECB governing council announced on Thursday that it will move ahead with building the technical infrastructure to test and deploy a retail CBDC, slated to begin rolling out in 2029, if EU lawmakers pass legislation allowing the ECB to issue it. Read more
Bank Indonesia will issue tokenized government bond–backed digital securities built on its digital rupiah CBDC, calling it the nation’s “stablecoin version.” Bank Indonesia (BI), Indonesia’s central bank, is moving ahead with plans to issue what it describes as its “national stablecoin version,” a digital currency backed by government bonds (SBN). The initiative was unveiled by central bank Governor Perry Warjiyo during the Indonesia Digital Finance and Economy Festival and Fintech Summit 2025 in Jakarta on Thursday, according to a report by CNBC Indonesia. During the summit, Warjiyo said Bank Indonesia plans to issue digital central bank securities, which are tokenized versions of SBN. The digital securities will be backed by the digital rupiah, the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). Read more
A stablecoin is now live in Kyrgyzstan, which confirmed plans to launch a CBDC and explore a national crypto reserve after meeting with strategic adviser Changpeng Zhao. Kyrgyzstan has rolled out a new stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Kyrgyzstani som, while confirming plans to issue a central bank digital currency and explore a digital asset reserve. The KGST stablecoin will run on the BNB Chain, and BNB (BNB) would be included in the crypto reserve if launched, according to former Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, who attended the National Council for the Development of Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies’ second meeting on Friday with President Sadyr Japarov. The first meeting took place around April, when CZ became a strategic adviser for Kyrgyzstan’s crypto committee. Read more
A stablecoin is now live in Kyrgyzstan, which confirmed plans to launch a CBDC and explore a national crypto reserve after meeting with strategic adviser Changpeng Zhao. Kyrgyzstan has rolled out a new stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Kyrgyzstani som, while confirming plans to issue a central bank digital currency and explore a digital asset reserve. The KGST stablecoin will run on the BNB Chain, and BNB (BNB) would be included in the crypto reserve if launched, according to former Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, who attended the National Council for the Development of Virtual Assets and Blockchain Technologies’ second meeting on Friday with President Sadyr Japarov. The first meeting took place around April, when CZ became a strategic adviser for Kyrgyzstan’s crypto committee. Read more
The House Rules Committee could add the CBDC bill to the final version of the market structure bill, but may not impact the Senate's own version of the legislation. The US House of Representatives may have a shorter legislative path to bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by using a market structure bill it passed in July. In a Monday hearing of the House Rules Committee, a draft agenda showed a proposal to add the text of the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — also passed by the chamber in July, albeit by a narrow margin — to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The engrossment method would add the CBDC bill to the final version of the existing market structure bill sent to the Senate for consideration. Read more
Lawmakers are faced with a choice to block the creation of a US digital dollar due to privacy concerns, though critics argue the fight is more about politics. As US lawmakers return from their August recess, the debate over central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is once again at the forefront of crypto policy. In the latest episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Cointelegraph spoke with Sheila Warren, CEO of the Project Liberty Institute, about whether the CBDC debate in Washington reflects real risks or political posturing, and what it means for the future of the digital dollar. Supporters of the measure argue that a CBDC would endanger civil liberties by giving the government unprecedented access to financial data. Read more
The study involving Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol is one of many initiatives exploring use cases for a potential Hong Kong CBDC, or e-HKD. The Hong Kong government is partnering with Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to test cross-border transactions between permissioned and permissionless blockchains, as well as settlements using different types of digital assets. The partnership is part of Phase Two of Hong Kong’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative. According to a report from payments company Visa, the initiative will involve a hypothetical Australian investor who wishes to purchase a tokenized asset in Hong Kong. After requesting the purchase in a stablecoin pegged to Australia’s currency, the transaction will be routed via interactions across multiple blockchains. Finally, the purchased asset finds its way into the investor’s wallet, denominated in Hong Kong’s CBDC. Chainlink’s CCIP plays a role in the communication between different blockchains. Acc...