Banking and CBDC Weekly Roundup
The programmingability of money versus its uniformity in Thailand. Cambodia Bakong CBDC statistics for the first half of 2024. Kyrgyz digital som legislative framework.
For all the key details of new Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) projects in the banking world, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, and central bank digital currency (CBDC) updates, the Observers 'Banking and CBDC Roundup' has you covered.
CBDC Updates
Bank of Jiangsu, one of China's best-performing local commercial banks, published a list of use case scenarios they made available for the country’s CBDC. Working with merchants and organizations, the commercial bank integrated its services with the digital renminbi application. The promotion focuses on products and services in eight major areas: food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment, medical care, and study.
The users of China’s CBDC can enjoy cheaper public transport among other discounts, including access services in 120 hospitals and more than 800 schools and kindergartens through “sub-wallet” function of the e-CNY app.
As we previously reported, Chinese authorities use e-CNY to distribute also various subsidies and government support funds.
This month, the Thailand government started the distribution of 10,000 baht ($280) as part of the digital money promised by the current leadership during the election campaign. However, the Digital Wallet Tokens (DWT) can only be spendable within a four-kilometer radius of recipients’ homes and will only be valid for six months. According to local observers, such restrictions will almost certainly make DWT inferior to regular money. Although DWT is not considered CBDC in Thailand, the outcome of this experiment is interesting for digital currency architects. The “programmability of money” and “the uniformity of money” are two concepts often cited in the CBDC design papers, omitting the part that these two might be mutually exclusive.
Thai DWT does not have the status of legal tender, which makes enforcing its acceptance and uniformity with other payment methods even more complicated.
Thinking differently, in Kyrgyzstan, the authorities put the legal status of their CBDC before the implementation process. The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) has published the proposed amendments to the laws concerning the monetary authority, banking, payments, and other applicable regulations. The country’s CBDC, Digital Som, is currently preparing to test a prototype in a sandbox-like environment.
Finally, one of the earliest CBDCs already in use, Cambodia’s Bakong, is increasing its adoption levels. The National Bank of Cambogia published statistics for the first half of 2025, which show 1.8 times more transactions and 1.4 times more value in the transactions of the Cambodian riel compared to the corresponding previous period.
Tokenization News
Franklin Templeton is expanding its OnChain US Government Money Market Fund on various blockchains. The tokens are now available for transactions on Arbitrum, Stellar, and Polygon through integration with its proprietary Benji mobile app.
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