In brief
- Lebanon has announced plans to launch a digital currency in 2021.
- The country has previously made reference to a digital currency or cryptocurrency for local use.
- As early as 2019, money laundering risks have featured in discussions about what this currency would look like.
Lebanon's central bank is reportedly launching a digital currency in 2021.
According to a report from Lebanon's National News Agency cited by Bloomberg, the digital currency is designed to promote confidence in Lebanon's banking system.
This is not the first time Lebanon has flirted with the idea of a digital currency. In April of this year, Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon's Central Bank, said Lebanon intends "to launch a central bank digital currency to make payments more affordable to Lebanese." But now, the intention has changed from affordable payments to confidence in Lebanon's banks.
Bitcoin Sees Big Spike in Number of Active Addresses
The number of active addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain hit 1.18 million yesterday, reaching similar heights to those seen during Bitcoin's 2017 bull run. As pointed out by Hans Hauge, head of quant strategy at Ikigai asset management, yesterday's spike was the seventh highest number of active addresses in Bitcoin's history. He was referring to data from crypto data site Coin Metrics. "Wow, there were a lot of BTC Active Addresses in use yesterday. 1,188,873 to be precise. That's the 7th highe...
Further back in history, the Lebanese Central Bank reportedly announced the launch of a cryptocurrency, or "virtual Lebanese pound" that would be designed for local use.
At the time, concerns relating to money laundering—as opposed to terrorist financing—were rife.
On this subject, Salameh previously said that "cryptocurrencies were more often used for money laundering than for terrorism financing, because no exchange mechanism exists for these currencies in war zones."
Bank of Canada Calls for “Globally Coordinated” Effort to Launch CBDCs
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem confirmed the bank’s plans to work with its G7 partners on its plans for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on Thursday, according to a report on Reuters. “If another country has one and we don’t, that could certainly create some problems. So we want to make sure we’re ready,” he said in an interview. A coordinated effort Macklem called for a “globally coordinated” approach to prevent the use of state-backed digital currencies by criminals and other mali...
Should Lebanon finally launch a digital currency, it would join a long list of countries that have already launched—or are considering launching—a digital currency of their own.
