Montenegro’s Prime Minister, Dritran Abazonic, has announced that the country’s central bank is partnering with Ripple to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The country’s Prime Minister had reportedly met with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Vice President James Wallis while in Davos, Switzerland for the recent World Economic Forum.
The country currently has no national currency of its own, utilizing the Euro since 2002. Subsequently, this provides an interesting development of the country’s own digital currency or stablecoin. To date, the Prime Minister has taken to Twitter to only confirm the collaborative effort to launch a CBDC pilot project.
Montenegro CBDC in Development
Cointelegraph translated the Prime Minister’s Tweet, which stated “In cooperation with @Ripple and the Central Bank, we launched a pilot project to build the first digital currency or stablecoin for Montenegro.”
The Bulkan nation of Montenegro is currently not a member of the European Union, despite applying for membership in 2008. Conversely, it has adopted the Euro since the transnational currency was first adopted three decades ago. Thus, the greatest question looming over the Montenegro Central Bank and Ripple’s CBDC development is regarding its lack of a national currency to call its own.
However, the Montenegrin government has long been interested in carving a place for itself amidst the digital asset industry. In April, the country hosted a panel titled Future Now!, in which Ethereum co-creator Vitalki Buterin attended and was subsequently granted Montenegrin citizenship.
The announcement of the Montenegro Central Bank and Ripple developing a CBDC was first released on Jan. 18, and only just reached international audiences. Ripple advisors have promoted new feats made in regard to CBDC development, with “several pilots in progress.” Moreover, the company is a founding entity in the Digital Dollar Project that joined the Digital Euro Association in February of last year.
