Cryptocurrency has little prospect of wholesale use in the next three years, most global central banks say in a BIS survey
- Most central banks are examining potential usages of digital currencies
- Vast majority do not expect to issue their own digital currencies in the short term
Most of the world’s central banks are proceeding cautiously in developing digital currencies, with little likelihood of any of them issuing a sovereign currency for wholesale settlement in the next three years, according to a survey by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
More than half of the 63 central banks surveyed said cryptocurrencies accounted for “trivial” usage, or were not used at all for domestic payments, while 28 per cent said they were only used by niche groups domestically, according to the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS, dubbed the central banks’ central bank.
“No central banks reported any significant or wider public use of cryptocurrencies for either domestic or cross-border payments in their jurisdictions,” said Christian Barontini and Henry Holden, authors of the report, after the survey in late 2018 of banks that covered an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s population.
Wholesale digital currencies, which would be restricted in usage for specific tasks, such as interbank payments, are seen as the most likely usage for such currencies initially by central banks.
Two central banks from “emerging market economies” were considering issuing their own cryptocurrencies for the general public, the survey said, without identifying them.
The survey was released a day after the price of bitcoin jumped nearly 5 per cent to more than US$4,000, according to CoinDesk, a research website that tracks digital currencies.