A CBDC is a central bank digital currency — serving as a bridge between fiat and virtual currencies that the central bank in a particular nation launches. The idea of releasing a centrally controlled virtual currency got on once big tech companies (like Meta) started expressing interest in crypto.

Back in May 2020, only 35 countries were seriously thinking of a CBDC. In the post-pandemic times, that number has grown to 114. So far, 11 countries have completely launched their digital currency.

About 60 countries in total are in an advanced phase of CBDC development. In 2023, over 20 countries will be taking substantial steps to begin or continue launching a CBDC pilot including Australia, Thailand, India, South Korea, Russia, and Brazil among them.

The Bahamas, Jamaica, and Nigeria have become some of the countries to launch their own CBDC in the recent past.

So, which countries have their own digital currency? Now, we take a closer look at the most prominent countries to debilitate and launch CBDCs so far, and where they stand right now.

Countries coming out with their own CBDCs

India

Within just a year of announcing a CBDC, India has come pretty far in terms of CBDC development and is among the most progressive when it comes to countries with their own digital currency.

In the 2022–23 Union Budget, the government announced that a digital rupee will be introduced, backed by the RBI. CBDC India was a step taken to strengthen the country’s economy and bring more efficiency, while also reducing national currency management expenses.

India has already launched two CBDC pilots — one for wholesale purposes (CBDC-W) on November 1, 2022, and another for retail purposes on December 1, 2022 (CBDC-R) in the four cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar. The first four participating banks were the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank. As of February 20023, it has been extended to 15 cities altogether, and more than 10,000 big and small merchants and over 50,000 customers have already been onboarded.

The digital rupee is still in the trial phase, and it will have blockchain-based elements attached. The wholesale and retail pilots for CBDC India were launched respectively on November 1 and December 1, 2022. The currency is expected to be used for secondary market trades in government securities, and make the interbank market procedures smoother.

China

Speaking of countries with their own digital currencies, China has to be one of the biggest names. China started testing a CBDC as early as April 2020, becoming the first of the big economies to be officially interested in virtual currencies. The People’s Bank of China meant for the e-CNY or digital Yuan to be well in use by the end of 2022.

China entered an experiment conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which included 60 other central banks in the world, in 2020. The pilot for digital Yuan included about 26 big cities and 5.6 million merchants.

Starting in December 2022, the e-CNY in circulation in China got included in the total amount of currency in circulation. By the end of December, e-CNY was already amounting to about 13.6 billion Yuan (translating to about $2 billion). The e-CNY can now be used to buy securities as well, and the app even allows users to make payments offline.

The US

Quite surprisingly, the US is still behind India and China when it comes to launching a CBDC.

The Biden-led administration greenlit an executive order to encourage responsible digital assets-related innovation back in March 2022.

The Digital Dollar Project, which is a nonprofit advocating for the digital dollar, has recently released an updated CBDC white paper named ‘Exploring a US CBDC’. Meanwhile, the NY Federal Reserve’s wholesale CBDC experiment: Project Cedar, has changed the CBDC status in the US from research to development.

Russia

Russia is one of the biggest early movers in the CBDC arena.

Russia debuted the digital ruble trial in February 2022, following the official CBDC roadmap released in 2021.

Russia has plans to roll out the digital ruble across all banks in the country by 2024, as well as to develop a cross-border settlement system with CBDC.

Which other countries are bringing out CBDCs?

Here’s a quick look at the CBDCs of some more countries:

• The Bahamas came out with the Sand Dollar back in October 2020.
• Nigeria brought the eNaira in October 2021.
• Jamaica very recently launched JAM-DEX, in June 2022.
• In 2017, Sweden’s Riksbank started pilots for a CBDC named e-krona.
• Ukraine is already testing out their CBDC called the e-hryvnia.
• The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) is planning to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as part of the first of its newly-launched financial infrastructure transformation (FIT) program to accelerate digital transformation in the country.

And that was a brief update on the status of CBDC developments across the world. If you have made it with us so far, we do hope this was a fun and informative ride for you.

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