Central bank digital currencies will rise in popularity this year, analyst says

Piper Sandler analyst David Kroger believes that more countries will launch a central bank digital currency in 2022, starting with wholesale CBDCs, he writes in a note to clients. Note that wholesale CBDCs use the exiting tier of banking and financial institutions to conduct and settle transactions. The prediction comes at a time when a handful of developing countries have already launched, or plans to introduce CBDCs. For example, Bank of Jamaica successfully completed its CBDC pilot last week, and expects to launch in Q1. The Bank of Mexico recently said it plans to launch a CBDC by 2024, joining both Brazil and Peru as Latin American nations working on developing CBDCs. Towards the end of October, Nigeria launched its CBDC, eNaira, to drive economic growth. Just three weeks after the launch, eNaira attracted 500K users. With regards to China, one of the largest economies in the world, the digital