The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Palau, a small nation located in the Pacific Ocean, launched phase 2 of the Palau Stablecoin (PSC) program. This was reported by Jay Hunter Anson, the cybersecurity consultant who is part of this initiative.

The program consists of the development of a stablecoin as a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which will maintain price parity with the US dollar. This is done through the CBDC platform offered by Ripple.

Anson detailed that Phase 2 of the program “will focus on building a robust digital ecosystem, expanding accessibility and user participation with an emphasis on legal and regulatory compliance.”

This includes, he stated, the integration into the initiative of financial institutions, legal and regulatory compliance, regulatory bodies, legal frameworks, businesses and users. All of this is, as he indicated, to achieve security and transparency of transactions that adhere to international standards.

He also noted that Phase 2 will see new collaboration on Palau's marketing, sustainability goals and environmental initiatives.

These statements take place amidst the concerns that there are about CBDCs in the world, since these currencies allow governments to monitor citizens' financial movements, as well as freeze their funds or automatically debit payments. Such aspects go against the values ​​of privacy and self-custody that gave rise, among other factors, to bitcoin (BTC).

Despite announcements of progress in the Republic of Palau's CBDC, the price of Ripple's cryptocurrency, XRP, declined slightly from USD 0.66 to USD 0 .61 during the last 7 days. It did not show a positive market reaction to the news but still BTC and XRP are up by 160% and 81.06% on YTD basis respectively. The price movement of XRP was in line with that of bitcoin, which fell from USD 43,800 to USD 41,000 in the same period. This scenario occurs while the bitcoin market seeks support after reaching USD 44,000 last week, its maximum in 18 months.