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Kuwait mulls digital currency issue – CBK

Kuwait mulls digital currency issue – CBK
The CBK is setting up infrastructure for tradable digital currencies

Mubasher: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has confirmed news that it was setting up infrastructure in order to launch tradable but non-virtual digital currencies like bitcoin.

The bank further revealed that it was designing and preparing an infrastructure as well as setting up the necessary technology for the banking sector including e-payments for the digital currency launch, a statement released late Sunday showed.

Commenting on the difference between digital currencies and cryptocurrencies, the CBK noted that the first had the same characteristics as paper money with an issuance number, can be used to pay for goods and services, and exchanged with other currencies, whereas the second, which can also be used for goods and services, is harder to control and monitor.

Alrai newspaper previously reported citing informed but unnamed sources as saying that the CBK would launch a digital currency in 2019.

Last week, AMEinfo reported that Kuwait was not cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges or dealing with “crypto crimes stemming from e-wallet thefts, or Bitcoin money laundering.”

It stated that the trading of digital currencies was “simply banned in the country.”

In December, Kuwait’s Ministry of Finance forbade banks and financial institutions from trading crypto tokens “on the basis that trading is out of the control of official Kuwait financial organisations, as the cryptocurrency is not backed by the Central Bank.”

Meanwhile, Alrai reported that a fatwa had been issued in Kuwait, banning the trading of bitcoin, citing that trading of the cryptocurrency was “unclear.”