Bitcoin Daily: Standard Chartered CEO: Widespread Digital Currencies ‘Inevitable’; Abra Expands To More Than 150 Countries

Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, said he sees the adoption of digital currencies on a widespread scale as inevitable, CNBC reported.

Winters, speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival, said there would likely be room for both state-backed digital currencies as well as privately-owned ones, CNBC reported. He also said Standard Chartered is going to announce something along the same lines soon.

While governments around the world are looking at the possibilities for digital currencies, Winters said the biggest opportunities could lie in the adoption of more niche versions not representing existing currencies, according to CNBC. He said digital currencies could be created for specific projects, such as trading in the voluntary carbon market, working to provide financial assurance for those who want to offset carbon emissions.

In other news, Abra, a Silicon Valley-based crypto banking service, is expanding its partnerships to dozens more countries via four new fiat-to-crypto gateways, according to a CoinDesk report.

While previously only serving around 40 countries, Abra now works in over 150 countries, working with deals from companies like Simplex, Moonpay, Banxa and Transak, the report stated.

With the international collaborations, the company will now be able to access more payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and more, according to the report.

And, the Singaporean government has rolled out a new $9 million program to boost the country’s blockchain ecosystem, according to The Block.

The program is called the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme and will work to boost development, research and commercialization for blockchain in real-world applications, the report stated.

According to the report, the program will comprise around 75 companies conceptualizing 17 blockchain projects within the next three years, prioritizing trade, logistics and supply chain needs.

Enterprise Singapore Chairman Peter Ong said in the report that the pandemic “has shown that businesses and even entire industries have to change.”