WASHINGTON/TUNIS (CI GCA) – Afghanistan and Tunisia are in a veritable race to be the first country to issue a sovereign bitcoin bond, according to interviews with Afghanistan Central Bank Governor Khalil Sediq and Tunisian Central Bank Governor Marouane El Abassi.
[Da Afghanistan Bank (Central Bank) Governor Khalil Sediq speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass during IMF World Bank Springs Meeting in Washington, DC on April 13, 2019]
During an exclusive interview at the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings with Capitol Intelligence, Afghanistan Central Bank Governor Khalil Sediq said the central Asian nation would seriously consider issuing a sovereign crypto bond using blockchain technology as an instrument to raise some USD 5.8bn in needed private sector investment in the country’s critical mining, energy and agriculture sectors
Governor Sediq said the bitcoin could be coupled with a form of metals future, such as lithium, and noted that Afghanistan’s mineral reserves are now estimated at more than USD 3trln. Afghanistan is set to become one of the world’s largest miner of lithium, the metal is in short supply due to electric vehicle demand triggered by Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Sediq said that a bitcoin issuance can offer Afghanistan, which faces severe restrictions on non-concessionary borrowing, a way to access international markets using a first-of-its-kind technological instrument such as a bitcoin using hyperledger blockchain technology.
Central Bank of Tunisia Governor Marouane El Abassi said the North African nation has created a working group to seriously study the issuance of a sovereign bitcoin bond.
[Tunisia Central Bank (BCT) Governor Maroaune El Abassu speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Glass during IMF World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC on April 13, 2019]
El Abassi, a former World Bank official, noted that Tunisia was one of the first country’s in the world to issue an electronic currency, the e-dinar and already of digital cash payments through the Poste Tunisienne developed by Tunis-based DigitUS Tech owned and founded by Walid Driss.
For Governor El Abassi, bitcoin and blockchain hyperledger technology offers central banks an efficient tool to combat money laundering, manage remittances, fight cross-border terrorism and a means to limit countries grey economies.
Uzbekistan — which sent a high-level delegation to the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings to study bitcoin and blockchain technology – should not be counted out in the race to issue to the first sovereign bitcoin bond, Uzbekistan Ambassador to the United States and Deputy Governor of Navoi, Javlon Vakhabov said.
An Uzbek bitcoin bond could be combined with a cotton future as the central Asian nation is the world’s fifth producer of the commodity in the world.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde — who has taken a global leadership position on potential use of bitcoin and blockchain – said that issuance of bitcoin and blockchain technology should be done with a “sandbox” approach.
[Digital Asset CEO Blythe Masters filmed by Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on blockchain as new internet revolution on Fintech – Challenges to Regulation and Central Banking moderated by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at IMF World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, DC. October 12, 2017]
Taking the lead in the issuance of sovereign bitcoin bonds in New York-based Digital Asset and DRW Cumberland bitcoin mining company out of Chicago.
Not only are Digital Asset and Cumberland the undisputed leaders in the new bitcoin/blockchain revolution but they also pioneered the trading of bitcoin on the Chicago derivative markets.
In a not so distant future, institutional investors will be able to trade and hedge an Afghan/Lithium or an Uzbek/Cotton bitcoin bond on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
By PK Semler in Washington DC and Tunis, Tunisia. For more information, please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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