President Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov took his country closer to the release of its own Central Bank Digital Currency Thursday, which signed the law providing “digital som” legal status.
The country in Central Asia is still deciding whether to issue a CBDC, but Thursday amendments to the Kyrgyz Republic’s Constitutional law ensure that digital SOM will be considered a legal soft if the central bank precedes the release of a CBDC.
“The purpose of the constitutional law is to launch a pilot project of a prototype of a national digital currency, ‘Digital SOM,’ as well as to create a legal basis and its status,” a statement At the President’s site.
Under new provisions, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic can develop and approve the rules for making payments on SOM’s digital platform.
These provisions, described as amendments to the President’s website, were first adopted on March 20 by the Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan. The country should start testing this year’s digital som, according to the local news outlet Trend News Agency. The country is not expected to make a final decision on whether to issue a CBDC until next year.
The idea of CBDCs has been controversial in some crypto proponents, but countries such as the UK, Nigeria, Jamaica and Bahamas – as well as the multinational bloc of the European Union – have moved in the direction of the release of a CBDC, while other countries such as the US have moved further into the idea of one.
