China’s Jiangsu Province Integrates Digital Yuan Into Education System

Further Trials Required Before Determination of eHKD Launch DateThe Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is taking a cautious approach to the launch of its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-HKD, stating that it will only go live once key stakeholders have gained sufficient experience to compete effectively in the payment sector.Photo by Jimmy Chan on PexelsAwaiting greater clarityIn an interview with the South China Morning Post (SCMP) earlier this week, Eddie Yue, CEO of the HKMA, revealed that initial experiments with e-HKD have shown promise, but the central bank is still waiting for greater clarity on technological, legal, and societal aspects. The CBDC trial began in May, involving 16 commercial banks, payment providers, and gross settlement platform Ripple, with a focus on exploring various use cases.Yue emphasized that they are still in the early stages of the trial process. The central question remains finding a use case that outperforms current retail payment methods in terms of safety, speed, or convenience.Programmable paymentsAmong the use cases explored in the pilot, programmable payments have stood out. This functionality allows consumer funds to be restricted for specific purposes. Bank of China (Hong Kong) has been at the forefront of this study, allowing select users to make payments using the test CBDC.The potential applications of the CBDC extend to tokenized deposits and tokenized assets, the aspect of the project which Ripple has involved itself with. The HKMA has shown interest in tokenization, especially after the successful completion of Project Evergreen, a blockchain-based bond issuance project.While the domestic use of the CBDC faces challenges, the HKMA is actively considering its role in cross-border payments. The HKMA has been involved in the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) mBridge pilot, which is expected to release a minimum viable product (MVP) by 2024. It’s working alongside the Bank of Thailand and the central bank of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on that project. Hong Kong and the UAE have been working towards strengthening financial cooperation in respect of crypto regulation.Following the achievements of the initial pilot, the HKMA is open to bringing in new participants. Rumors suggest that up to 20 central banks are closely monitoring the project’s developments.Collaboration with mainland ChinaRecent weeks have seen Hong Kong and China working on improving cross-border transactions. In July, it was announced that Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong would be able to use their digital yuan wallets to pay for goods and services at select locations.Conversely, Hong Kong tourists visiting mainland China could use the digital yuan for retail transactions. A new upgrade will enable tourists to top up their digital yuan wallets using Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) or major payment providers like Mastercard and Visa.While the exact launch date for e-HKD remains uncertain, the focus on practical use cases and technological advancements is expected to yield a robust and innovative CBDC for Hong Kong’s future. On the international front, the mBridge project is set to play a pivotal role in the broader adoption of CBDCs across borders, potentially revolutionizing global payment systems.

CarrieVerse joins Dubai’s DMCC as metaverse service providerWeb3 metaverse platform CarrieVerse has joined the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), the UAE’s largest free-trade zone for a wide array of companies including those in the blockchain and crypto industry. Last month, CarrieVerse received final approval to establish a local subsidiary there, which will serve as a hub to expand its global Web3 ecosystem, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.Photo by ZQ Lee on UnsplashAn ever-growing business hub“DMCC has recently risen as a hub for Web3 companies and investors that is actively supported by the Dubai government and the royal family. As the first Korean Web3 company to officially partner with DMCC, we expect that CarrieVerse will grow into a global company here,” said David Yoon, CEO of CarrieVerse.DMCC is a UAE government agency located in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers district of Dubai and is currently led by Executive Chairman and CEO Ahmed Bin Sulayem. It is home to more than 23,000 companies ranging from startups to large corporations and has been named Global Free Zone of the Year by the Financial Times’ FDI Magazine for nine consecutive years since 2015.Notably, the zone also has a Crypto Centre for blockchain and crypto businesses, including big names like Binance and Bybit. It has been supporting companies by providing funding, incubation, peer-to-peer matching and opportunities for collaboration.According to Zaher El Orm, the Crypto Centre Executive at DMCC, the Crypto Centre also supports businesses in their pursuit of crypto licenses for business activities and regulated virtual assets activities. These include blockchain as a service, metaverse service provider, crypto proprietary trading and crypto mining activities. CarrieVerse revealed that it has officially obtained a license as a metaverse service provider.Promising outlook for CVTXDMCC is now an official partner of CVTX, the platform’s governance token, which is expected to boost the token’s momentum on global exchanges. It has recently been listed on the Singapore-based digital asset exchange BingX. This will further help the platform secure partnerships with more than 1,000 leading global Web3 companies at DMCC.CarrieVerse and DMCC stated that they plan to reveal the roadmap of their partnership in the future.

The European Union (EU) introduced its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation in June of last year, refining the EU bloc’s stance relative to digital assets. However, one crypto sector entrepreneur believes that the regulatory framework may force crypto startups to relocate to the Middle East. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Anastasija Plotnikova, co-founder and CEO of Fideum, a blockchain infrastructure company geared towards institutions, outlined that the application of this regulatory framework by EU member states may have some unintended consequences.Photo by Christian Lue on UnsplashCentralization concernsWhile Plotnikova welcomes the legitimization of crypto through regulation as a net positive for the sector, she warns that this particular regulatory framework could lead to consolidation among crypto firms. That would mean a reduction in the overall number of Web3 enterprises in Europe and as a consequence, increased risk of centralization in an industry that is supposed to be all about decentralization. Whilst the regulatory framework was introduced last year, it's not due to go into full effect until Dec. 30, 2024. Plotnikova believes that the framework doesn’t give crypto startups the wriggle room to scale whereas in the case of larger entities with much more assets under management, they will find it much easier to scale. French multinational financial services company Societe Generale, an entity with around $160 billion worth of assets under management and 126,000 employees, stands out as an example. It recently announced that SG Forge, a subsidiary company, would partner with Austrian crypto exchange Bitpanda to issue and list its EUR ConVertible (EURCV) euro-denominated stablecoin. Another European TradFi behemoth, Landesbank, Germany’s largest federal bank, announced earlier this year that it will launch crypto custody services. Global competitionSpeaking to the publication on the margins of the European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona earlier this week, Plotnikova stated: “I'm afraid it will lead to consolidation between European and American companies, and they will just move somewhere to the Middle East. The European Union had has done amazing things in harmonising legislation, but enforcement comes down to local and national authorities and they vary greatly.” There’s no doubt that various world centers and regions have been competing to varying extents to become innovative hubs relative to the development of blockchain-based enterprises. Plotnikova alluded to Europe losing out to the Middle East in this instance and principal among those nations in the region vying for a share of the business has been the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  The UAE itself, together with individual emirates such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has been putting in place a regulatory framework relative to crypto that has been broadly praised by the crypto sector. As recently as earlier last week, the Dubai regulator continues to fine tune its regulatory framework, tightening up requirements related to the marketing of crypto products and services. A recent report by Chainalysis found that the Middle East region accounted for 7.5% of global crypto trading volume, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia having been found to demonstrate a strong interest in decentralized platforms.