Sweden enters testing phase of first European CBDC
The e-Krona has now entered testing phase for external participants
Sweden is the first European economy to advance a Central Bank Digital Currency into testing phase. The so called e-Krona is issued be the Riksbanken and has been in development since 2017 in cooperation with the Handelsbanken, and seeks to grant Swedish citizens easy access to digital money.
The Scandinavian country, which is a member of the EU but not the Eurozone, is known for its advanced efforts of digitalization, and is the first country in Europe to test a CBDC.
“The project means the opportunity to participate in what may be among the first digital central bank-issued money in the world to be available to the public,” Handelsbanken falsely claimed in a statement, overseeing the digital Sand Dollar which is in functional circulation since the beginning of the year.
Nonetheless, Sweden stands at the forefront of CBDC in third place, with China standing in second place of the race with large-scale testing of the digital Yuan. Several other Asian countries are pursuing similar projects, while the US and EU are lagging behin.
Experts believe CBDCs to be the future for centralized currencies, as was discussed during the AIBC Summit.
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