Dritan Abazovi, the prime minister of Montenegro, recently announced on Twitter that his country is working with Ripple to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Abazović met with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Vice President James Wallis at Davos.
Abazović stated in a Twitter thread;
“In cooperation with Ripple and the Central Bank, we launched a pilot project to build the first digital currency or stablecoin for Montenegro.”
However, because Montenegro does not already have a national currency of its own, it is unknown exactly what the future digital money would be. Despite not being a member of the Eurozone or the European Union (EU), Montenegro has adopted the euro as its official currency since the transnational currency’s introduction in 2002. Montenegro submitted its application to the EU in 2008.
The Montenegro Government has been angling for a place in the cryptocurrency industry for months. It has developed a reputation for its acceptance of crypto, and it held a panel titled “Future Now!” in April that Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin attended. Buterin was reportedly granted Montenegrin citizenship at that time.
The announcement for the project with Ripple was made on January 18, however, it took several days for news of the project to reach the international community.
Ripple advisors have promoted new feats made in regard to CBDC development, with several pilots in progress. Moreover, the company is a founding entity in the Digital Dollar Project that joined the Digital Euro Association in February of last year.