u.today
As reported by Finance Magnates, today the Bank of Lithuania proudly announced the release of their digital collector coin LBCOIN. This is not only the first cryptocurrency emitted by a central bank in Europe; it is the first crypto ever released by any bank in the world.
These coins are usually referred to as CBDC: Central Bank Digital Currency.
First bank to release crypto
The intention to issue LBCOIN on July 23 was first mentioned earlier this month. The DLT-powered coin consists of six digital coins and one physical coin for collectors.
For this project, the bank emitted 4,000 LBCOINs; that is equal to 24,000 digital coins and, on top of that, 4,000 collector coins made of silver. The release of the coin is dedicated to the anniversary of the country issuing its Act of Independence in 1918.
According to the chairman of the bank’s board, Vital Vasiliauskas, the launch of LBCOIN is a fine result of the bank’s firm intention to introduce innovation in the sphere of finance and payments.
He called the bank’s crypto and the silver collectibles issued a bridge between classical numismatics and the fast-evolving fintech sphere.
Vasiliauskas also shared a hope that, in the future, the country will become stronger as the fintech hub of the region.
Global banks are eyeing CBDCs
Recently, numerous media reports have had it that several global central banks have been looking into issuing digital currencies.
Among them is the central bank of Japan, Sweden, Canada, as well as Switzerland, the UK and the EU. They have all made public their intention to start researching the subject of CBDCs.
PBoC (the Central Bank of China) has been the oldest player on this field, as it has been working on digital yuan (DCEP) for several years. This process accelerated last year when Facebook stepped forward with its Libra stablecoin—which has so far been shelved for better times.