The central banks of about 20 emerging and developed economies are anticipated to be using digital currencies by 2030, according to a study released on Monday by the Bank for International Settlements.
To prevent leaving digital payments to the private sector in the face of an accelerated drop in cash, central banks all over the world have been researching and developing digital versions of their own currencies for retail use.
According to the BIS’ survey of 86 central banks conducted in late 2022, the majority of the new central bank digital currencies will appear in the retail sector, where eleven central banks could join peers in the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica, and Nigeria that already operate live digital retail currencies.
Nine central banks may establish CBDCs on the wholesale side, which in the future may enable financial institutions to access new functions due to tokenization, according to the BIS.
The authors of the research stated that one of the main reasons why central banks are working on wholesale CBDCs is to improve cross-border payments.
According to the BIS, 93% of central banks surveyed participated in CBDC in some capacity, with 60% reporting that the development of stablecoins and other cryptoassets had sped up their efforts.
The crytpo market has experienced instability over the past 18 months, including the failure of TerraUSD, an unbacked stablecoin, in May 2022, the fall of crytpo exchange FTX in November, and the insolvency of banks that provided services to cryptocurrency providers like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
