ChainCatcher news, senior banking officials and financial executives from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) discussed the possibility of shutting down mBridge at a meeting in Washington. This discussion stemmed from concerns over remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the opening ceremony of the BRICS summit in Kazan, where he proposed the idea of establishing a BRICS-led alternative international payment system.mBridge is a cross-border payment system operated by the central banks of China, Thailand, the UAE, and Hong Kong (Saudi Arabia joined this year as a new member), and is supported by the BIS Innovation Hub. mBridge uses distributed ledger technology to enable faster payments that bypass intermediary banks.

ChainCatcher news, during the opening speech at the Invest in UAE Forum, Hong Kong's Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Chen Haolian, stated that over the past year, Hong Kong and Dubai have continuously strengthened their partnership in the financial sector. Last year, a Hong Kong licensed insurtech company began a strategic collaboration with the oldest insurance company in the UAE, and their digital asset custody insurance has been approved by the Central Bank of the UAE to operate locally.In terms of cross-border payments, Chen Haolian pointed out that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of the UAE, along with three other central banks and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, are collaborating on a project called Multiple Central Bank Digital Currencies (mBridge) to explore the application of wholesale central bank digital currencies. The project completed its pilot phase in 2022, with 20 banks from four jurisdictions participating. This year, the project has reached the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage and will further expand participation from the public and private sectors.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, gold market analyst Jan Nieuwenhuijs stated that the Bank of Thailand's continuous purchases of gold may indicate that the country is preparing to use the CBDC cross-border settlement project mBridge to address the imbalances in the CBDC-dominated trading system.The analyst noted that just days before the release of the minimum viable product (MVP) of mBridge, China and Thailand signed a bilateral currency trading cooperation framework, with China and Thailand being two of the first members of the mBridge platform.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, the cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) trading platform Project Mbridge has entered the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, and its infrastructure now has basic functionalities.According to a press release from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the project began its pilot in 2021 in collaboration with the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and is now ready for intermediate actual value transactions.

ChainCatcher news, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Switzerland, announced on Wednesday that the Saudi Arabian central bank has joined the mBridge project, a cross-border experiment using central bank digital currencies (CBDC) for international trade.The mBridge project was launched in 2021 as a collaborative initiative between the BIS Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), aimed at testing the feasibility of using CBDC for instant cross-border trade and other payments on the project's blockchain, the mBridge Ledger.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Caixin, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Paul Chan, mentioned the latest developments of the digital Hong Kong dollar and digital renminbi during the release of the 2024-2025 "Budget".In terms of digital finance, Chan stated that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed the first phase of the pilot program for the "digital Hong Kong dollar" (i.e., "e-HKD") last October, researching various local retail use cases, such as programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, etc. The second phase of the trial is about to start, further exploring new use cases. Another key initiative, the "Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge" (mBridge, also known as the "Currency Bridge Project"), has also made progress, with the first phase of services expected to launch this year, becoming one of the first projects globally to settle cross-border transactions for enterprises using multilateral central bank digital currencies.In addition, the pilot scope of the digital renminbi will be expanded in Hong Kong, allowing citizens to conveniently open and use digital renminbi wallets, and to add value through Hong Kong's rapid retail payment system "Faster Payment System", further enhancing cross-border payment efficiency and user experience.

ChainCatcher news, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) conducted its first cross-border digital dirham transfer using the mBridge Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platform on January 29. According to Gulf News, this cross-border CBDC transfer of 50 million dirhams (approximately 13.6 million USD) was sent to China using the multi-CBDC mBridge platform.It is reported that the mBridge project was launched in 2021 in collaboration with the central monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE, along with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This is the only international partnership involving China. The project completed its pilot phase in September 2022 and was commercially launched a year later in September 2023.The mBridge platform has already onboarded multiple commercial banks from each participating member country to engage in infrastructure and technology work.

ChainCatcher news, according to Blockworks, during the keynote speech at the 2023 Shanghai Securities Market Forum, Eddie Yue, the President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, detailed the plans for mBridge, a platform co-developed by China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UAE in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements.It is reported that the mBridge project is a digital platform developed through cooperation among central banks, aimed at utilizing blockchain technology for cross-border payments. Some believe it has the potential to challenge the traditional dollar-based global payment system.Now, more central banks are expected to join and expand the scope of the project. Yue stated, "We look forward to more central banks joining this open platform, and soon we will launch what we call the minimum viable product to pave the way for the gradual commercialization of mBridge." Recent pilot tests have shown that the central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform can accelerate cross-border payments while reducing costs and increasing transparency.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Shanghai Securities Journal, the President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue, stated that the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project (mBridge), in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements and several central banks including the People's Bank of China, is progressing. The latest pilot tests indicate that this central bank digital currency wholesale platform can accelerate cross-border payments with lower costs and higher transparency. We look forward to more central banks joining this open platform.Eddie Yue mentioned that a "minimum viable product" may be launched soon, aiming to pave the way for the gradual commercialization of mBridge. It is hoped that this new innovative platform can help address the long-standing pain points of cross-border payments and improve the efficiency of the global value chain.

ChainCatcher news, according to Yahoo Finance, the President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue, stated in an interview that the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge mBridge project is expected to enter the "Minimum Viable Product (MVP)" stage early next year. In addition to the central banks of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE, two other central banks are in discussions to join, and it is believed that more central banks will participate before the MVP. He also mentioned that outside of the four central banks, mBridge currently has 15 central banks or international organizations as observer members, with two in discussions to join, details of which will be announced later. Eddie Yue admitted that he does not wish to expand too much at this stage, hoping to first establish a controllable cooperative platform to negotiate details during the experimental phase, and then gradually expand the network after the platform is established.Eddie Yue pointed out that this visit to the UAE is to discuss how to solve some challenges, hoping to advance mBridge to the MVP stage, making trade settlements cheaper and faster. He candidly stated that the current difficulties are not technical in nature and listed four major challenges: coordinating regulations across regions, platform governance methods, ensuring local currency liquidity, and safeguarding foreign currency liquidity. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, based on data from the Cambridge Centre for Energy, Ethereum consumed a total of approximately 58.26 TWh of electricity during its PoW phase, which is roughly equivalent to Switzerland's total electricity consumption for a year (54.88 TWh).After Ethereum transitioned to PoS, electricity consumption decreased by over 99%, with the Cambridge Centre for Energy estimating that Ethereum's current annual electricity consumption is 6.56 GWh, which is less than the annual electricity consumption of the Eiffel Tower (6.70 GWh). (source link)

ChainCatcher news, the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge (mBridge) project jointly built by the Bank for International Settlements (Hong Kong) Innovation Hub, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates has made positive progress.According to the report "The Currency Bridge Project: Central Bank Digital Currencies Facilitating Economic Integration" jointly released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and others, the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project has successfully completed its first real transaction pilot based on four central bank digital currencies. Within six weeks, 20 commercial banks from four different jurisdictions completed a total of 164 cross-border remittance and foreign exchange transactions for their clients through the currency bridge platform, amounting to over 150 million yuan (approximately) in total. (Source link)

Chain Catcher news, according to The Block, a study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) found that Bitcoin mining accounts for 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to 48.35 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.Additionally, the study estimates that 37.6% of the energy used by the industry comes from sustainable sources. (The Block)