Myanmar’s Junta Wants Its Own Digital Currency As Govt Pushes Tether

Myanmar’s Junta wants its own digital currency but the government in exile still pushes Tether as the main crypto to use so let’s read more today in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The military government is proposing and creating its own digital currency after a year of overthrowing the elected leader. Myanmar’s Junta wants to get rid of Tether and Major General Zaw Min tun who is the deputy information minister said that the military leadership wants to create a digital currency to improve financial activities in the country and according to the reports, he indicated that the government could create the currency on the work alongside local companies.

The country’s central bank already banned BTC and other cryptocurrencies and said it is just in the research phase of the CBDC and electronic versions of the national currencies. It’s not as far as China which is piloting the digital yuan or the Bahamas which has been using the Sand Dollars for more than a year. It could have gotten the idea from supporters of the Aung San Suu Kyi head of state who was deposited in a 2021 coup. The National Unity Governmnetconsists of exiled governemnt officials as well as other parties and interest groups. The goal is to take down the junta and in December it recognized USDT a stablecoin issued by Hong Kong-based company Tether as an official currency. The stablecoin tracks 1:1 with the US dollar and can be used anywhere with an internet connection that is better than cash.

But the junta needs to get the economy going. The GDP per capita is the lowest in Southeast Asia which is going to bound and get worse in the future. The US sanctioned 65 people for their involvement in the coup and other 26 organizations with ties to the junta which limited their ability to do business. This includes the government-owned gem mining company which is a major source of income for the generals. Other sanction countries turned to crypto to get around the sanctions and boost sagging economies with some mixed results. Back in 2018, Venezuela started issuing the Petro which is backed by oil reserves but the government has mandated its use for a variety of services and failed to spur growth. Venezuela’s GDP ranks near to Myanmar’s and the annual inflation sits above 680%.

Iran in the meanwhile saw BTC mining as a potential source of profitability at one point that mandated that regulated miners could sell mined BTC back to the central bank and replenish the dwindling foreign reserves. This has been dampened by strains to the country’s electrical grid which resulted in a few temporary moratorium on the mining processes. China in the meantime, cut off access to global cryptocurrencies and promotes its CBDC which regime critics contend that will have an effect of increasing financial surveillance and will make citizens quite fearful of crossing the state.