National Australia Bank To Launch Stablecoin On Ethereum & Algorand Blockchains, As Per Report

National Australia Bank will become the second of the nation’s key financial institutions to launch a stablecoin, a top executive told the Australian Financial Review.

The cryptocurrency, dubbed AUDN, will launch on the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains later in 2023.

Howard Silby, National Australia Bank’s chief innovation officer, told Australian Financial Review that the stablecoin would permit users to settle transactions on the blockchain network in real-time, using Australian dollars.

National Australia Bank will be the 2nd of Australia’s big 4 banks to launch a stablecoin, after rival Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) minted its own, called A$DC, last year.

Early uses of A$DC suggest that Aussie dollar stablecoins might play a role in Australia’s energy transition plans. In the month of June, an investor used the stablecoin to buy carbon credits.

In the meantime, the nation’s central bank is moving ahead with a CBDC project. A pilot of the scheme is due to be concluded by mid-2023.

In the month of November last year, the asset manager behind 2 of the nation’s 1st digital asset ETFs applied to delist the investment vehicles subsequent to just 6 months of trading, due to the worldwide bear market.

A couple of days later, the Australian Securities Exchange ditched a long-running project to update its clearing system using blockchain, leading to a write-off of one hundred and seventy million dollars.