The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has revealed its Swiss payments vision, which includes exploring a private token backed by central bank reserves and a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) on the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) for a limited time. The SNB has already conducted various wholesale CBDC tests and plans to issue a real wholesale CBDC on the SDX as a settlement asset for tokenized securities transactions. The central bank is also exploring using private money as a settlement asset for tokenized transactions, which would be one-to-one backed by sight deposits at the central bank, with a comparable risk profile to central bank money. The SNB believes that integration and interoperability between payment systems, payment solutions, and different forms of money are crucial for a trustworthy payment system.

China's Guangdong province has started issuing digital yuan import tax refunds, with local treasury departments receiving and handling digital yuan tax refunds more efficiently. Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, and other areas in the digital yuan pilot zone have launched digital yuan payment and tax refund services for domestic value-added tax, corporate income tax, and other taxes. In Zhuhai, a man became the first Chinese citizen to pay parcel tax on a trade import from Macau using digital yuan, eliminating the time he might have spent waiting in line. The CBDC payment system improves the speed of transactions and expedites the passenger customs clearance process. Overseas digital yuan usage cases are being piloted in tests in Macau and Hong Kong.

Katie Fortune, who leads the Bank of England's work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), has said that she believes a coexistence between CBDCs and bitcoin is possible. Speaking at the Citi Digital Money Symposium, Fortune said that the bank envisages a mixed ecosystem of different forms of money, similar to the current system with different mechanics for bank deposits and cash. Fortune sees CBDCs acting as a bridging asset between different forms of digital money, such as stablecoins, providing a uniformity which is a "social good" and not a government control issue. The Bank of England has been exploring the idea of a digital pound, sometimes referred to as “Britcoin”. However, practical use cases for CBDCs would be required for its implementation, with Fortune suggesting a focus on retail payments and ecommerce. She also called for a focus on building infrastructure that allows for smoother digital payment processes, adding that once this was in place, the potential for further innovation would be likely.

Japan’s finance ministry is reportedly planning to launch an expert panel in April to assess the feasibility of issuing a digital yen, according to NHK.

U.S. banking giant Citigroup believes that mass adoption is six to eight years away and will be driven by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the tokenization of financial, gaming and real-world assets.

According to data acquired by Finbold, three cryptocurrency firms with a cumulative valuation of $42.3 billion made it to the list of top 10 leading fintech unicorns globally as of Q4 2022.

Today, countries representing over 95 percent of global GDP have begun to explore CBDCs. While most countries are years away from implementation, central banks in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean have already paved the way.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has indicated that regulated stablecoins and a central bank digital currency (CBDC) can coexist, and has given the clearest signal so far that Japan will launch a digital yen. BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda spoke about the potential for stablecoins to carry out conventional payment functions and their use in settlements. He also spoke of technological progress that could soon see Japanese businesses using stablecoins and a CBDC for cross-border transactions, potentially helping to streamline the conventional banking system. The BoJ has been working on a prototype digital yen for over two years and Kuroda suggested that Japan would "have to realize" a CBDC "in the future."

Japan's finance ministry plans to launch an expert panel next month to explore the feasibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), or digital yen, public broadcaster NHK reported without saying where it got the information.

With global interest and the growing exploration of Central Bank Digital Currencies by central banks, privacy has become a crucial aspect to consider.