Observers

A key figure involved in preparing legislation for the digital euro has been accused of stalling by rival politicians—and over in Russia, Vladimir Putin wants his country to "seize the moment" and embrace the digital ruble.

"Even if CBDC is not used, we still need it for interlinking", conclude Canadian researchers. Meanwhile, the digital euro overcomes a key technical hurdle, as Israel and Taiwan say they won't launch CBDC until someone else does first.

Official police figures show there was a sharp rise in crime across Belgium last year—especially in Brussels. Some 62% of pickpocketing incidents took place in the capital.

While interest in ETH ETFs could be buoyed by the ongoing shift toward tokenization, market watchers aren't expecting these funds to be anywhere near as popular as those tracking Bitcoin's spot price.

Local politicians are arguing that the 50,000 BTC seized from a pirating website should be held in reserve in the hope of future price growth—but these pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Bahamas piles pressure on commercial banks to embrace its struggling Sand Dollar, while the UK's new government makes encouraging noises on CBDCs and tokenization.

Chinese officials have already warned that transacting in Tether is illegal—and late last year, it urged local authorities to embark to impose tighter restrictions and punish those responsible.

WhaleFin is going to be rebranded as S.BLOX—and is set to forge close ties with the other businesses within Sony's vast $108 billion empire.