A project from fintech company Monei testing a token linked to the euro has reportedly been approved by the financial sandbox programme of the Bank of Spain, or Banco de Espaa, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, the Bank of Spain authorised Monei to issue its EURM token as part of a testing phase anticipated to last six to twelve months, according to a Jan. 18 report from Spanish news outlet Cinco Das. The goal of the sandbox was to create a monitored testing environment for financial innovation projects under the watchful eye of central bank authorities in Spain.
In December, the Bank of Spain made the official announcement of the beginning of its “exclusive” wholesale CBDC programme. Despite the fact that Monei’s project is not an ECB-issued CBDC, Verdaguer claimed that testing it through Spain’s central bank could pave the way for one, “”The Bank of Spain may sit down with the ECB and say that we have the product, that it is regulated and supervised, and that it is shaped from there.”
A potential release date of 2026 was suggested at the time the ECB announced in July 2021 that it had begun a two-year investigation phase for a digital euro.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)