A total of 134 countries representing 98% of the global economy are now exploring digital versions of their currencies, with almost half at an advanced stage and pioneers like China, the Bahamas and Nigeria starting to see a pick-up in usage.

The research by the US-based Atlantic Council think-tank published on Tuesday showed that all G20 nations are now looking into central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and that 44 countries in total are piloting them.

That is up from 36 a year ago and is part of a global push by authorities to respond to declining cash usage and the threat to their money-printing powers from the likes of bitcoin and Big Tech.

The Atlantic Council’s Josh Lipsky and Ananya Kumar said one of the most notable developments this year has been the sizeable increase in the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria’s CBDCs, the only three countries that have already launched them.

China, too, which is running the world’s largest pilot scheme, has seen use of its protype e-CNY nearly quadruple to C¥7-trillion (US$987-billion) of transactions, according to officials.

“There has been a narrative that the countries that have launched CBDCs have seen low or no usage, but in the last months we have seen a real uptake,” Lipsky said. “My predication is that the PBOC (China’s central bank) will be close to full launch a year from now,” he added.

Other big advances have been the European Central Bank’s launch of a multi-year digital euro pilot and the US, which has long dragged its feet on a digital dollar, joining a cross-border CBDC project with six other major central banks.

Retail and wholesale

It still lags far behind nearly every other leading bank however Lipsky highlighted that it is one of the countries where privacy and other concerns about CBDCs are most vocal.

In May, the US house of representatives passed a bill prohibiting the direct issuance of a “retail” CBDC — the type used by the public. The senate has not yet acted, but it remains a live issue in the presidential election campaign between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the G7 sanctions response, “wholesale”, bank-to-bank-only CBDC projects have more than doubled in number to 13. The fastest growing one, codenamed mBridge, connects CBDCs from China, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia and is expected to expand to more countries this year.

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Russia is unlikely to be one of them but its digital rouble pilot means it is now accepted in the Moscow metro and in some petrol stations. Iran is also working on a digital rial.