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Visualized: The State of Central Bank Digital Currencies

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Visualized: The State of Central Bank Digital Currencies

Central banks around the world are getting involved in digital currencies, but some are further ahead than others.

In this map, we used data from the Atlantic Council’s Currency Tracker to visualize the state of each central banks’ digital currency effort.

Digital Currency – The Basics

Digital currencies have been around since the 1980s, but didn’t become widely popular until the launch of Bitcoin in 2009. Today, there are thousands of digital currencies in existence, also referred to as “cryptocurrencies”.

A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are based on a blockchain ledger. Blockchains can be either decentralized or centralized, but the most known cryptocurrencies today (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) tend to be decentralized in nature. This makes transfers and payments very difficult to trace because there is no single entity with full control.

Government-issued digital currencies, on the other hand, will be controlled by a central bank and are likely to be easily trackable. They would have the same value as the local cash currency, but instead issued digitally with no physical form.

Central Bank Digital Currencies Worldwide

105 countries are currently exploring centralized digital currencies. Together, they represent 95% of global GDP. The table below lists the data used in the infographic.

CountryStatusUse Case
NigeriaLaunchedRetail
The BahamasLaunchedRetail
JamaicaLaunchedRetail
AnguilaLaunchedRetail
Saint Kitts and NevisLaunchedRetail
Antigua and BarbudaLaunchedRetail
MontserratLaunchedRetail
DominicaLaunchedRetail
Saint LuciaLaunchedRetail
Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesLaunchedRetail
GrenadaLaunchedRetail
SwedenPilotRetail
LithuaniaPilotRetail
UkrainePilotUndecided
KazakhstanPilotRetail
RussiaPilotRetail
ChinaPilotBoth
ThailandPilotBoth
Hong KongPilotBoth
South KoreaPilotRetail
Saudi ArabiaPilotWholesale
United Arab EmiratesPilotWholesale
SingaporePilotWholesale
MalaysiaPilotWholesale
South AfricaPilotBoth
CanadaDevelopmentBoth
BelizeDevelopmentUndecided
HaitiDevelopmentBoth
VenezuelaDevelopmentBoth
BrazilDevelopmentRetail
TurkeyDevelopmentRetail
IranDevelopmentRetail
BahrainDevelopmentWholesale
IndiaDevelopmentBoth
MauritiusDevelopmentBoth
BhutanDevelopmentBoth
CambodiaDevelopmentRetail
IndonesiaDevelopmentBoth
PalauDevelopmentBoth
AustraliaDevelopmentBoth
JapanDevelopmentBoth
SpainDevelopmentRetail
FranceDevelopmentBoth
NetherlandsDevelopmentRetail
SwitzerlandDevelopmentWholesale
ItalyDevelopmentUndecided
GermanyDevelopmentUndecided
EstoniaDevelopmentRetail
LebanonDevelopmentRetail
IsraelDevelopmentRetail
Euro AreaDevelopmentBoth
United StatesResearchRetail
MexicoResearchRetail
GuatemalaResearchUndecided
HondurasResearchUndecided
Trinidad andd TobagoResearchUndecided
ColombiaResearchUndecided
PeruResearchUndecided
ParaguayResearchUndecided
ChileResearchRetail
IcelandResearchRetail
UKResearchBoth
MoroccoResearchRetail
GhanaResearchRetail
NamibiaResearchUndecided
EswatiniResearchBoth
MadagastarResearchRetail
ZimbabweResearchUndecided
ZambiaResearchUndecided
TanzaniaResearchUndecided
RwandaResearchUndecided
UgandaResearchUndecided
KenyaResearchRetail
TunisiaResearchWholesale
OmanResearchUndecided
KuwaitResearchRetail
JordanResearchUndecided
GeorgiaResearchRetail
BelarusResearchUndecided
NorwayResearchRetail
Czech RepublichResearchUndecided
PakistanResearchRetail
NepalResearchUndecided
BangladeshResearchUndecided
MyanmarResearchUndecided
LaosResearchBoth
VietnamResearchUndecided
MacauResearchUndecided
TaiwanResearchBoth
PhilippinesResearchRetail
New ZealandResearchRetail
VanuatuResearchUndecided
FijiResearchUndecided
TongaResearchUndecided
PalestineResearchRetail
JordanResearchUndecided
AustriaResearchWholesale
HungaryResearchRetail
BermudaInactiveUndecided
Sint MaartenInactiveRetail
CuraçaoInactiveRetail
ArgentinaInactiveUndecided
UruguayInactiveRetail
DenmarkInactiveRetail
AzerbaijanInactiveUndecided
EgyptInactiveUndecided
North KoreaInactiveUndecided
FinlandInactiveRetail
EcuadorCancelledRetail
SenegalCancelledRetail

When aggregated, we can see that the majority of countries are in the research stage.

central bank digital currencies by status

We’ve also divided the map by region to make viewing easier.

Africa

Africa digital currencies

Asia

Asia digital currencies

Europe

Europe digital currencies

Middle East

Middle East digital currencies

South America

South America digital currencies

North America

North American digital currencies

What are the Benefits?

A major benefit of government-issued digital currencies is that they can improve access for underbanked people.

This is not a huge issue in developed countries like the U.S., but many people in developing nations have no access to banks and other financial services (hence the term underbanked). As the number of internet users continues to climb, digital currencies represent a sound solution.

To learn more about this topic, visit this article from Global Finance, which lists the world’s most underbanked countries in 2021.

The 9%

Just 9% of countries have launched a digital currency to date.

This includes Nigeria, which became the first African country to do so in October 2021. Half of the country’s 200 million population is believed to have no access to bank accounts.

Adoption of the eNaira (the digital version of the naira) has so far been relatively sluggish. The eNaira app has accumulated 700,000 downloads as of April 2022. That’s equal to 0.35% of the population, though not all of the downloads are users in Nigeria.

Conversely, 33.4 million Nigerians were reported to be trading or owning crypto assets, despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s attempts to restrict usage.

Status in the U.S.

America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, has not decided on whether it will implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Our key focus is on whether and how a CBDC could improve on an already safe and efficient U.S. domestic payments system.
– Federal Reserve

To learn more, check out the Federal Reserve’s January 2022 paper on the pros and cons of CBDCs.

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Charted: What are Retail Investors Interested in Buying in 2023?

What key themes and strategies are retail investors looking at for the rest of 2023? Preview: AI is a popular choice.

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A cropped bar chart showing the various options retail investors picked as part of their strategy for the second half of 2023.

Charted: Retail Investors’ Top Picks for 2023

U.S. retail investors, enticed by a brief pause in the interest rate cycle, came roaring back in the early summer. But what are their investment priorities for the second half of 2023?

We visualized the data from Public’s 2023 Retail Investor Report, which surveyed 1,005 retail investors on their platform, asking “which investment strategy or themes are you interested in as part of your overall investment strategy?”

Survey respondents ticked all the options that applied to them, thus their response percentages do not sum to 100%.

Where Are Retail Investors Putting Their Money?

By far the most popular strategy for retail investors is dividend investing with 50% of the respondents selecting it as something they’re interested in.

Dividends can help supplement incomes and come with tax benefits (especially for lower income investors or if the dividend is paid out into a tax-deferred account), and can be a popular choice during more inflationary times.

Investment StrategyPercent of Respondents
Dividend Investing50%
Artificial Intelligence36%
Total Stock Market Index36%
Renewable Energy33%
Big Tech31%
Treasuries (T-Bills)31%
Electric Vehicles 27%
Large Cap26%
Small Cap24%
Emerging Markets23%
Real Estate23%
Gold & Precious Metals23%
Mid Cap19%
Inflation Protection13%
Commodities12%

Meanwhile, the hype around AI hasn’t faded, with 36% of the respondents saying they’d be interested in investing in the theme—including juggernaut chipmaker Nvidia. This is tied for second place with Total Stock Market Index investing.

Treasury Bills (30%) represent the safety anchoring of the portfolio but the ongoing climate crisis is also on investors’ minds with Renewable Energy (33%) and EVs (27%) scoring fairly high on the interest list.

Commodities and Inflation-Protection stocks on the other hand have fallen out of favor.

Come on Barbie, Let’s Go Party…

Another interesting takeaway pulled from the survey is how conversations about prevailing companies—or the buzz around them—are influencing trades. The platform found that public investors in Mattel increased 6.6 times after the success of the ‘Barbie’ movie.

Bud Light also saw a 1.5x increase in retail investors, despite receiving negative attention from their fans after the company did a beer promotion campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Given the origin story of a large chunk of American retail investors revolves around GameStop and AMC, these insights aren’t new, but they do reveal a persisting trend.

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