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JP Koning provides some advice on whether to buy bitcoin at current levels (around $38,000). He offers three visualizations of the future path for the price of bitcoin to help with that decision. If it's slowly becoming money then buying and holding, ignoring its diminishing (proportional) volatility is a good strategy. If bitcoin is a bubble, buying could be disastrous because eventually it'll be worth zero. If bitcoin is a game, it depends if you're getting into the game early (when bitcoin is a good buy) or late (bad). I'm intrigued by the "game" scenario, which implies that bitcoin's price will never stabilize. There will always be big downward and upward spikes, which make it such an exciting game. And new game players will re-enter to play after every downward spike, re-anchoring bitcoin's price and setting the stage for the next ramp up. Also, for the foreseeable future, bitcoin's price will continuously hit a terminal ceiling ($50,000? $200,000?) dictated by its maximum participation rate (5%? 15?)

The European Banking Federation (EBF), which represents the vast majority of the European banking sector, published a paper on a digital euro ecosystem. It argues that a retail digital euro could be envisaged in the mix of new tools and solutions to meet evolving payment needs, as long as it adds value to consumers, is appropriately designed, in close cooperation with the private sector, and mitigates ex ante the accompanying risks. a retail digital euro could - if properly designed - support the strategic autonomy of Europe and ensure a monetary anchor role of the euro. A wholesale digital euro based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the settlement of interbank transfers and related wholesale transactions in central bank reserves, would support the international role of the euro, enhance global cross-border payments and match the needs arising from digital finance.

Intereconomics published a paper by Christian Pfister on the whys and hows of issuing distributed ledger technology (DLT) based wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). The whys focus on the provision of a safe and liquid settlement instrument that would be directly available in a DLT environment, thus preserving the anchoring role of central bank money in this environment. The hows focus on the potential perimeter of the use of wholesale CBDC (e.g., whether to integrate with a "regulated liabilities network) , the consequences for monetary policy and precautions central banks should take.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) launched a new "structured" currency called "Zimbabwe Gold" (ZiG) that will be anchored to a weighted value of the central bank's precious metal (mainly gold) and foreign currency reserves. As of April 5, 2024, the RBZ had reserve assets of US$100 million in cash and 2,522 kgs of gold (US$185 million) to back the entire local currency component of reserve money which stood at ZW$2.6 trillion (US$90 million). ZiG notes and coins shall be issued in denominations made up of 1ZiG, 2ZiG, 5ZiG, 10ZiG, 20Zig, 50ZiG, 100ZiG, and 200ZiG, but no mention is made of what becomes of the ZiG (now GBDT) wallets, assuming such wallets ever existed.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) CEO Eddie Yue remains skeptical about the benefits of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). H started by listing some of the potential benefits, including serving as a fundamental layer to facilitate interoperability and interlinking between various future digital economy participants. Also, it could act as a bridge between different types of privately-issued digital money, and ensure all private money to be exchangeable with a public money on demand and at par. He also envisioned that a retail CBDC could be a potential "backbone" and anchor, bridging a legal tender and digital assets, offering price stability and confidence needed to empower more innovations, and developing a vibrant sector and ecosystem for digital assets in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, Mr. Yue said that more research is needed on whether its benefits outweigh the risks, particularly "given the generally efficient and competitive retail payment ecosystem in Hong Kong" [and the HKMA] will continue to take a use-case driven approach in thinking about whether and when to introduce a retail CBDC." https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/speeches/2024/04/20240411-1/

A chapter published in a legal conference volume published by the European Central Bank (ECB) investigated the potential rationale for the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to preserve monetary sovereignty. It concluded that the introduction of a CBDC as a protective measure when the currency substitution is caused by unfavorable economic conditions is neither effective nor appropriate for such purposes. And it identified only a very limited set of circumstances when the issuance of a CBDC might be appropriate to push back on the use of technologically superior foreign money. And more bluntly, it concluded that "a digital euro might help defend the monetary sovereignty of the euro area Member States by facilitating cross-border payments as a conduit, mitigating dependence on foreign infrastructure for pan-European payments, serving as a catalyst for the promotion of technologically new payment functionalities and offering a digital complement to cash. In its planned form, however, the digital euro is not (yet) fit for purpose. Its statutory privilege compared to cash and its holding limits will prevent it from fulfilling its anchoring function. Its issuance would thus weaken rather than strengthen the euro area's monetary sovereignty in the long run." [starts on page 165]

This article will present a layman overview of what is terra luna in crypto and where is this heading towards.