The financial sandbox of the Bank of Spain, or Banco de España, has reportedly approved a project by fintech firm Monei testing a euro-pegged token.
According to a January 18 report by Spanish outlet Cinco Días, the Bank of Spain it gave gave Monei the green light to issue its EURM token as part of a trial phase expected to last 6-12 months. the sandbox was managed in the establishment of a controlled test environment for financial innovation projects in Spain under the supervision of the central bank authorities.
As part of the EURM trial phase, eligible Spanish residents with a phone number will be able to send the equivalent of 10 euros using the digital asset. The digital tokens will reportedly be backed 1:1 with physical euros at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Caixabank.
“The future of payments is digital”, said the CEO and founder of Monei, Álex Saiz Verdaguer. “This is our chance to show the rest of Europe and the world that we are at the forefront.”
The Bank of Spain announced the launch of its own “exclusive” wholesale central bank digital currency, or CBDC, program in December 2022. Although Monei’s project is not a CBDC issued by the European Central Bank, or ECB, Verdaguer He said testing it through Spain’s central bank could lay the groundwork for such a token:
“[The Bank of Spain] You can sit down with the ECB and say that we have the product, that it is regulated and supervised and that it builds from there.”
Related: Cosmos EUR stablecoin project to wind down after 2 years
The ECB announced in July 2021 that it had entered a two-year research phase for a digital euro, suggesting at the time a possible launch in 2026. Since then, the central bank has issued statements and working papers focused on the design and the characteristics of a CBDC. , and the ECB Governing Council is expected to review the results of the research phase in the third quarter of 2023.
Cointelegraph reached out to Monei, but did not receive a response by press time.
