The Bahamas’s central bank put its digital currency on its official balance sheet in April

In a financial statement published in late April, the Central Bank of The Bahamas achieved a little-known milestone — including its brand-new digital currency on its balance sheet.

First included on page forty-seven of its annual report, the central bank noted that it had put $48,000 worth of the Sand Dollar into circulation.

The document later notes that: “The Bank made a pilot testing of the Sand Dollar in Exuma and has issued Sand Dollars in circulation valued at $48,000 to various retailers.”

The Sand Dollar project features prominently into The Block’s new report on central bank digital currencies. The exhaustive report covers a range of CBDC projects, including those being conducted by the Bahamas, China, the European Central Bank, and other institutions of its kind.

The Sand Dollar, intended to help modernize the region’s financial system and digitize the Bahamian dollar, is expected to go live sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, as The Block reports.

Read The Block’s new report, A Global Look at Central Bank Digital Currencies, by clicking here.