Majority of Central Banks Studying Own Digital Currency Projects
According to a recent study by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) 70% of the central banks are researching the advantages and disadvantages of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
They also reveal that few of banks are interested in issuing their own digital coins in the next three years.
The BIS is an international organization of central banks, they conduct a yearly survey to get the pulse of its member banks from around the world
The survey says that 85% of the 63 banks have no plans of issuing CBDSs for the next three years.
Two among the remaining who are interested in issuing virtual currencies comes from emerging economies before 2021.
BIS also revealed that based on the study, only central banks in small jurisdictions still have not become involved in some form of CBDC study.
These institutions only rely on international or regional bodies for information.
In short BIS, central banks all over the world have already begun studying cryptocurrencies and most of these central banks are not in a hurry releasing their own digital currencies.
Many have already started gathering information about the emerging technology but are not yet ready in the short term to release their own virtual currency.
Banks May Consider Cryptocurrency Reserve Over Gold
Nick Szabo has recently stated at the Israel Bitcoin Summit at Tel Aviv University that censorship-resistant cryptocurrencies will raise in countries that have been targeted with trade sanctions as well as those that have failed monetary planning.
He also predicts that the different monetary authorities or central banks of countries might turn to cryptocurrency reserve in the future.
This will be used as supplement national gold reserves.
Szabo is one of the prominent personalities in the whole cypto space.
He designed the concept of Bitgold back in 1998 long before Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin in 2009.
The cryptographer also wrote articles describing smart contracts and autonomous organizations.
He is so confident of cryptocurrencies that he predicts that even central banks in the future will be holding cryptocurrencies more so than Gold.
He states that gold reserves are vulnerable.
He cited the time when Nazis conquered Europe, the first place they went are the places where central bank’s held their fold reserves.
In contrast with bitcon which he says may probably survive a nuclear war.
There Is Enough Liquidity For Bitcoin
Passive fund providers are saying there is enough market liquidity for a Bitcoin ETF to be launched in 2019.
This is in contrary to what the Securities and Exchange Commission believes as it rejects Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) for the lack of market liquidity among other things.
There has been a number of Bitcoin ETF proposals over the years but up until now SEC has shot down all applications or have delayed approval of disapproval of some initiatives.
ETFs are fast becoming one of the major investment vehicles in the world of finance.
According to research ETFs could top $9 Trillion by 2022 as forecasted by Morgan Stanley.
Broker and asset manager Charles Schwab research suggest that the millennial generation is increasingly choosing to invest in ETFs accessed by apps.
It is not hard to see that a Bitcoin ETF is a game-changer for the burgeoning asset class.
There are several instances where it has been demonstrated that Bitcoin does have enough liquidity contrary to what SEC has observed.
According to Eric Ervin CEO of Blockforce Capital, there are two primary reasons.
First, there are a number of ETF’s currently in the market that are focused on esoteric asset with underlying assets’ liquidity under significant volume constraints.
Second he says that expanding derivative, futures and swap markets adds liquidity to the marketplace.
Bits Of Gold Moving Forward
Bit of Gold is a Bitcoin trading platform operating out of Israel.
The platform was founded by Jonathan Rouach and his brother Youval in 2013.
The company is registered and licensed in Israel but also has a daughter-company registered in Bulgaria that processes the credit card transaction.
Credit card transactions for cryptocurrencies are not allowed currently in Israel.
According to Youval there has been tremendous growth of the platform in the last years of existence.
Their business performance is heavily correlated with the rate of bitcoin when it comes to the retail market.
During the bearish market, it was revealed that the company has seen increase demand for B2B trading services.
However, the co-founder emphasized that their main focus are private users but the company does not ignore the huge business potential coming from institutional customers in 2019.
The company will be revealing a whole new array of products and services in 2019 in time with the launch of their new website in the first quarter of 2019.
It has been revealed that the company will expand its operations internationally starting with the European market and considering to enter the U.S. market through partnerships with other players in the market.
French Tabacco Shops Now Selling Bitcoins
It has been revealed that French Tabacco’s shops will start selling Bitcoin in their shops.
This was made possible through a partnership with a Parisian FinTech startup, Keplerk that has forged a partnership with six tabac centers located across the French capital.
The Bitcoins will take on the form of bitcon vouchers that are similar to gift cards with information how to retrieve digital currency in Keplerk’s crypto wallet.
According to Adil Zakhar, one of the co-founder of Keplerk the bitcoin vouchers will be up for sale initially in 100 tobacco outlets within the week with plans expansions that would onboard 6,500 licensed shops next month in February.
It aims to offer more venues where new users can enter the cryptocurrency space.
Zakhar states that people are finding it difficult to enter cryptocurrency.
With this initiative, they hope people will find it easier using a familiar venue.
The launch is moving forward despite the country has not yet determine a clear regulatory framework on how to deal with the new asset class.
There had been two ordinances on blockchain technology which remains the only legislative actions taken by the ministry of finance so far.
Since France is a member of the European Union, it is highly likely that the country will adhere to the policy that the union will adopt in the future.
-2019)
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