Gareth Jenkinson
A proposal to ban global cryptocurrency exchange Binance from operating in the Philippines will not gather steam due to a lack of regulations towards cryptocurrencies in the country.
The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has cited no clear guidelines set out by the country’s central bank, Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), as a dead-stop after a lobbying group called for the prohibition of Binance in early July.
Local think tank Infrawatch PH had asked the DTI to investigate Binance for the promotion of its services and offerings, which the group believes was done without the necessary permits.
Binance had looked to acquiesce the parties involved, telling Cointelegraph that it intends to secure virtual asset service provider and e-money issuer licenses in the Philippines.
Nevertheless, DTI is unable to enforce any ruling against Binance from operating in the country, according to their latest correspondence with Infrawatch PH. As reported by Forkast, the department cited a lack of legislation for virtual assets creating a gray area:
“Cryptocurrency and other forms of virtual assets are not consumer products, the Department of Trade and Industry has no jurisdiction to act on applications for sales and promotion permits to promote virtual assets per se in the absence of clear legislation on the matter.”
The DTI noted that the proposal would fall under the auspices of the country’s central bank, which has not released any official guidelines or regulations for the use or sale of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines to date. This would include any companies or service providers conducting sales or promotion activities linked to financial products.
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Derek Andersen
International agencies are urging central banks to consider interoperability early in the design of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the BIS Innovation Hub, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank released a report Monday that looked at three options for cross-border interoperability that address challenges including high costs, low speed, limited accessibility and thelack of transparency.
The present publication was a response to a 2020 Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures report that identified 19 building blocks to enhance cross-border payments. Most work on CBDCs has been focused on domestic policy goals so far, according to the authors. They went on to examine variables such as accessibility by payment service providers (PSPs) and nonresidents to wholesale and retail CBDCs and interaction with non-CBDC infrastructure.
Three approaches to interoperability were examined. Compatibility, or the adoption of common standards, would make it easier for PSPs to operate across systems. Interlinking would allow participants in the system to establish contractual agreements, technical links, standards and operational components to perform transactions across systems. Interlinking could be achieved through several models. Finally, a single technical system could host multiple CBDCs.
International collaboration on CBDC design is necessary to overcome cross-border payment challenges, and many CBDC design features remain undecided in the numerous CBDC projects currently underway. Research is moving fast, so the opportunity for coordination should be seized while it remains, the report said. Coordinating design features could help CBDCs avoid unforeseen pitfalls and improve common Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering efforts. The three approaches to interoperability discussed in the report are not mutually exclusive, although they all involve tradeoffs, the report noted.
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Sam Bourgi
Fintech firm blackfridge has launched a new stablecoin that is fully backed by the British pound (GBP), potentially opening the door to wider adoption of digital assets in the United Kingdom and its Crown Dependencies.
The newly launched “poundtoken,” which trades under the ticker “GBPT,” will be available for trading on Gate.io, Bittrex Global and Uniswap, blackfridge announced Monday. GBPT is said to be fully backed by the British pound, which means that every token issued will have an equivalent value held in reserves.
GBPT’s reserve status is regulated by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority, which oversees deposit and investment businesses in the self-governing British Crown Dependency. Big Four accounting firm KPMG has been appointed to audit poundtoken’s reserves — a process that will occur monthly.
Nicholas Maybin, poundtoken’s chief operating officer, said stablecoins have become an “integral part of the crypto sector.” Stablecoins were initially established to give cryptocurrency users reliable onramps to trading services. Over the years, their use cases have grown to include payments, remittances, lending and escrow services. As such, stablecoins play an integral role in the decentralized finance, or DeFi, market.
The British pound is one of the most widely traded currencies in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS. The BIS’ 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey found that pound Sterling’s share of global over-the-counter foreign exchange turnover was 12.8%, placing it fourth among active currencies.
In addition to a pound-backed stablecoin, the crypto market recently saw the launch of a euro-pegged stable asset. As Cointelegraph reported, USD Coin (UDC) issuer Circle Internet Financial now has a fully-reserved euro-pegged stablecoin available for trading.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
