The Bank for International Settlements' collaboration with seven central banks and more than 40 institutions concludes a two-year project with a prototype settling wholesale payments in seconds. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released a report Wednesday on Project Agorá, an experimental prototype for cross-border wholesale payment. The BIS said the report shows how seven central banks and more than 40 regulated financial institutions can settle cross-border wholesale payments in seconds once liquidity is locked, while reducing credit and settlement risk through atomic settlement using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits. The initiative marks one of the broadest collaborations yet between central banks and private lenders, exploring how tokenization could modernize global payments infrastructure. Read more
Over $935 million was wiped out across the crypto market as traders shifted their focus to $70,000 as the last line of defense for Bitcoin. Bitcoin (BTC) sold off into the early Asian trading session on Thursday as the drop to $72,600 produced significant liquidation of leveraged positions across the crypto market. Key takeaways: The BTC/USD pair fell as low as $72,620 on Thursday, reversing all gains made since April 13 after the US reportedly carried out a new wave of military strikes on Iran. Read more