Enterprise blockchain company R3 is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale, highlighting a broader shift in the financial sector's embrace of public over private blockchain networks.

While the population is "digitally savvy," data within the study suggests that encouraging consumers to switch to a CBDC may be an uphill struggle. Just 40% of payments in the Middle East and Central Asia were made digitally in 2021.

The New York Innovation Center (NYIC), a joint project of US Fed and BIS, is launching a proof-of-concept project to explore the feasibility of an interoperable network of digital central bank liabilities and commercial bank digital money using distributed ledger technology.