The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of France, Singapore, and Switzerland have successfully tested cross-border wholesale CBDCs.
The joint venture, known as Project Mariana, tested the cross-border trading and settlement of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs). Project Mariana was developed jointly by three BIS Innovation Hub centres (the Swiss, Singapore and Eurosystem Hub Centres), together with the Bank of France, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Swiss National Bank.
As outlined in the official statement, the project encompassed the successful trading and settlement of hypothetical EUR, SGD, and CHF. The collaboration tested DeFi elements, including automated market makers, which are expected to serve as the foundation for a new era of financial market infrastructure.
Project Mariana reportedly involved a process that relied on three elements: a common technical token standard that was extended by a public blockchain with the aim of facilitating the exchange and interoperability between various currencies, a bridge for the transfer of wCBDCs between currencies, and an Automated Market Maker (AMM). The latter of the three is a specific type of decentralised exchange to automatically trade and settle spot FX transactions.
Further research and experimentation are required due to the underdeveloped state of tokenization and DeFi technologies, despite the progress this project brings. The BIS Innovation Hub and its global partners will reportedly leverage relevant use cases to continue exploring their benefits and challenges.
An important aspect of Project Mariana, the Innovation Hub’s first cross-centre project, is the fact that it is purely experimental and, thus, does not imply that any of the partner central banks intend to issue wCBDC, endorse DeFi, or a particular technological solution.
Officials from the BIS Innovation Hub emphasised that Project Mariana pioneers the use of novel technology for interbank foreign exchange markets and that it demonstrated the feasibility of exchanging wholesale CBDC across borders while making use of new concepts like automated market makers.
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