Bank of Korea Halts Digital Currency Project

The Bank of Korea (BOK) suspended its central financial institution digital foreign money challenge, Singaporean monetary newspaper Business Times reported on Monday.

The challenge had reached the stage of creating a pilot program with taking part banks.

The central financial institution instructed the banks it should pause discussions associated to the initiative, in line with the report, which cited an unidentified BOK official.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung, who took workplace June 4, courted the nation’s cryptocurrency neighborhood throughout his election marketing campaign. Among his guarantees was a pledge to assist a won-based stablecoin market.

Earlier this month, Lee’s ruling Democratic get together submitted a invoice that may permit qualifying corporations to problem stablecoins.

CBDCs are a type of fiat foreign money that are supposed to act as a digital counterpart to money. They have been criticized as an idea, notably among the many crypto neighborhood, over considerations about privateness, surveillance and state management.

The Bank of Korea didn’t reply to CoinDesk’s request for remark.