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For centuries, money has evolved with technology: from coins to banknotes, cards and mobile payments. Today, digital wallets, stablecoins, tokenized assets and blockchain networks are making money behave more like information, moving instantly, crossing borders easily and remaining accessible at any time.
Traditional currencies remain central to the global economy, but concerns about inflation, debt and political instability have encouraged some investors to seek alternatives. Gold continues to attract demand for its reputation as a safe-haven store of value while digital assets have gained popularity because they can move outside conventional banking channels. But digital assets come with their own risks. Prices can be highly volatile, platforms can be hacked and users can lose access to their funds. Although blockchain transactions are often traceable, the broader ecosystem can still be exploited for theft, fraud and money laundering. The idea that digital money is entirely anonymous is misleading, but so is the belief that technology alone can eliminate financial crime.
In this new financial era, security will therefore be one of the defining challenges. Digital systems can create permanent and transparent records of transactions, but they must also protect personal data and prevent unauthorized access. A system that is efficient but vulnerable will not earn public trust. Nor will one that offers transparency at the cost of constant surveillance.
The transformation of money is also changing the infrastructure of banking. Traditional international transfers often pass through several institutions and may take days to settle. Tokenized money could allow value to move directly between parties, instantly and at any hour. This could reduce costs, improve liquidity and eliminate many of the delays built into the current system. Such a change would amount to a complete rebuilding of the financial system’s underlying plumbing. Banks, payment networks, technology companies and central banks would need to operate across compatible digital platforms. Different currencies and financial assets would need to move safely between networks. Without interoperability, the digital economy could become a collection of isolated systems rather than a truly global marketplace.
Regulation will be equally important. Digital finance crosses national borders, while laws remain largely national. A stablecoin issued in one jurisdiction may be used by people in dozens of others. Poorly designed regulations could slow useful innovation and could even expose consumers and economies to serious risks. Governments will need to find a balance that encourages competition and innovation without allowing financial instability to spread through untested systems.
Artificial intelligence adds another layer of complexity. It is already being used to detect fraud, assess creditworthiness, manage investments and automate financial decisions. In the future, AI systems may conduct transactions, negotiate prices and move funds with limited human involvement. This could make financial services more efficient, but it could also create new forms of exclusion and systemic risk. Algorithms trained on biased or incomplete data may deny people access to loans or insurance unfairly. Automated trading systems may amplify market volatility. Fraudsters may use AI to create more convincing scams and bypass security measures. As financial decision-making becomes increasingly automated, accountability must remain clear. When an algorithm makes a harmful decision, responsibility cannot disappear inside a technical system.
This is why the future of money cannot be separated from the future of trust. A currency or payment system has value because people believe others will accept it. A financial institution survives because customers believe their deposits are safe. A digital network succeeds because users trust its technology, rules and governance. The future is therefore unlikely to belong to a single form of money. Cash, bank deposits, central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets may coexist, each serving different needs. People and institutions will choose among them based on convenience, stability, privacy, security and confidence in the issuer. What is already clear is that money is becoming more programmable, more mobile and more closely connected to the internet. Payments are moving toward real-time settlement. Ownership of assets is becoming digital. The boundaries between banking, technology and communication are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.
The future of money is not a distant possibility. Important parts of it already exist. The challenge is to ensure that this ‘money revolution’ does more than make transactions faster. It must also strengthen security, protect individual rights, support economic stability and expand access to opportunity.
The future of money may already be here, but whether it becomes a fairer and more trustworthy future is still an open question.
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(FR) Gold Hits Record High as Investors Seek a Safe-Haven Asset
Henri-Louis Védie
Over the past century, the price of gold has risen from USD 20 per ounce to USD 5,300 per ounce in the first quarter of 2026. This paper, which examines the drivers behind this remarkable surge, is divided into two parts. The first adopts a historical perspective. It begins by tracing the evolution of gold’s status, from a monetized asset until 1971 to its subsequent demonetization. It then shows that this transformation was far from linear, being marked by periods of sharp price increases, stagnation, and decline. Finally, it identifies the main factors behind these fluctuations, including upward drivers such as geopolitical and military crises, and downward pressures such as rising interest rates and a stronger U.S. dollar. The second part examines the new status of demonetized gold, which has emerged as a genuine safe-haven asset, a role that the U.S. dollar no longer fulfills with the same certainty... Read more
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Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC): Where Do We Stand? Where Are We Going?
Christian de Boissieu
Faced with the rise of cryptocurrencies, central banks are responding by launching their digital currencies. The purpose of this Policy Brief is to provide an update on the preparation of central bank digital currencies (CBDs) by monetary authorities, a process that concerns all emerging, developing, and more advanced countries. It is also about analyzing the conditions and some of the consequences (for banks, for financial inclusion, for the conduct of monetary policy...) of such a financial innovation, systematically distinguishing between wholesale and retail CBDCs... Read more
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(FR) Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC): A Monetary Revolution in the Making
Henri-Louis Védie
By 2023, and according to the American think tank "Atlantic Council", 114 countries have launched a debate on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This reflection concerns wholesale CBDC, aimed at rethinking interbanking, and retail CBDC, which China has been successfully developing since 2014 with its e yuan, currently reserved for the Chinese domestic market only, pending further developments. The purpose of this Policy Brief recalls that CBDCs are neither an electronic currency nor a crypto asset, but a plural currency. Secondly, based on data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), it takes a global, statistical approach to the number of central banks and countries involved. Finally, this approach is completed by the spatial exploitation of data specifying the countries concerned, their respective central banks, their preference for wholesale and/or retail CBDC, etc... Read more
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Stablecoins’ Potential Effects on Monetary Systems
Hung Q. Tran
The passage of the US Genius Act in July 2025 has spurred the growth of stablecoins, mostly dollar-based, helping to modernize and improve payment transactions. The market capitalization of stablecoins increased rapidly to $317 billion in April 2026 and is expected to grow to $3-4 trillion by 2030. While still modest in scale, stablecoins, if fully developed, especially in the face of potentially strong competition from tokenized bank deposits, could have multifaceted effects on the economy and monetary system, both positive and negative, though these remain not yet well understood. Policymakers and market participants should be aware of these potential effects in order to realize the benefits while guarding against the risks of stablecoins... Read more
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The Tokenization of Money: What it Means for the International Monetary System
Hung Q. Tran
Amidst intense geopolitical competition, efforts to develop tokenized monetary units, tradable on programmable platforms such as blockchains, have added a new dimension to the debate about the role of a global payment and reserve currency. Tokenized monetary units are expected to greatly improve the efficiency of payment transactions in terms of their speed and cost, especially cross-border transactions. They could also meet emerging demand for technologically enabled features such as smart contracts, which can be embedded in monetary tokens. The country that can promote and develop tokenization based on its fiat money, the United States, for example, would enjoy first-mover advantages, being able to attract users to its tokenized platforms, and helping to strengthen the role of its currency in global payments and finance in the digital age. Alternatively, if several major countries could compete by developing tokenized money, the shift to a multi-currency reserve system would be accelerated... Read more
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(FR) The Rise of Cryptocurrencies in Africa: Reality or Hype?
Henri-Louis Védie
This study examines 33 African countries where, in 2022, at least 1% of the population owned cryptocurrencies. Three countries: South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria accounted for more than 333 million people, with cryptocurrency ownership exceeding 12% in South Africa, 11% in Kenya, and 10% in Nigeria. Across the remaining 30 countries, representing around 870 million people, ownership rates ranged between 2% and 5%, while in 18 of these countries, totaling 302 million people, the share was between 1% and 2%. The paper argues that this rapid adoption reflects a combination of Africa's demographic, urban, and economic dynamics, alongside the technological advantages of cryptocurrencies, which enable faster, lower-cost, and more anonymous capital transfers... Read more
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The Future of Central Banking: Crypto, AI, and Monetary Policies
Central banks are facing a new era where crypto and AI are reshaping how money is managed. Traditional monetary policies are evolving to meet these technological and financial challenges. This episode explores the risks, opportunities, and innovations redefining the future of finance. Discover how technology is transforming the heart of global economic decision-making... Watch
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Risk, Trust, and the Transformation of Commerce in the Digital Economy
Digital payments are transforming global commerce and unlocking new opportunities for the digital economy. But as innovation accelerates, so do security challenges and sophisticated fraud risks. In this episode, we explore how trust and protection must evolve to keep pace with a fast-moving marketplace. Charles Lobo joins us to discuss securing the future of commerce, from confidence online to the next frontier of payment security... Watch
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Our 2025 Annual Report is now available online, offering a comprehensive look back at a year shaped by a rapidly evolving geopolitical and economic landscape. It highlights our key achievements, major publications, events, and advances in multimedia production, while showcasing the data and initiatives that defined our work throughout the year.
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