Today in Crypto: Tanzania Eyes Creating Own CBDC; El Salvador Buys 500 More Bitcoin

Tanzania is coming closer debuting a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which it hopes will compete with crypto’s popularity in that country, a report from Bloomberg said Monday (May 4).

Bank of Tanzania Governor Florens Luoga said it was important to have a “safe alternative,” citing the rise in people “affected by cryptocurrency speculators.”

He said the bank couldn’t ignore the “technological advancement of money.”

His reasoning is similar to that of Nigeria, which began using a CBDC in October. And many other countries around the globe, including China, the Bahamas, the Central African Republic, Kenya and Zambia, have used them, too.

In other news, the El Salvador government has bought 500 bitcoins on Monday (April 9), which was the biggest buy it had made to date.

The price of the most popular cryptocurrency has been affected by a wider market rout. The price was driven below $31,000 for the first time since July 2021.

The government reportedly bought the coins at an average price of $30,744, according to President Nayib Bukele.

Bukele got headlines last year as he made bitcoin an official legal tender in El Salvador.

Also, billionaire crypto investor Michael Novogratz, who owns Galaxy Digital Holdings, has said this will likely be a “volatile and difficult” few quarters for crypto, Bloomberg wrote.

This will come as digital assets are still tied to moves in U.S. equities.

Novogratz said crypto would likely trade correlated to the Nasdaq for a while “until we hit a new equilibrium.” He added that there was probably more damage coming and the market would be “choppy” for a while.

Meanwhile, payment platform Nuvei will be teaming with Bibox, an AI-driven digital asset trading platform, in order to give Bibox customers an easier way to access cryptocurrencies.

That will happen through the Simplex by Nuvei on-ramp solution. Bibox users will then see a quicker checkout, and the partnership will ensure a frictionless experience, along with giving Bibox full chargeback and fraud protection.

Bibox also offers financial tools like coin-margined futures, bot trading, leveraged trading and current financing.