- The National Bank of Georgia has selected Ripple Labs as its official technology partner for a pilot project exploring the creation of a digital lari, the country’s central bank digital currency .
The NBG first announced its intentions to advance its CBDC project with the introduction of a limited-access live pilot environment in September. From there, it conducted a rigorous selection process that included nine shortlisted companies for evaluation. The bank assessed the applicants’ ability to support the pilot program and ultimately settled on Ripple Labs as their preferred technology partner.
“We were pleased to select Ripple as the official technology partner for our digital lari pilot project following a thorough review of all shortlisted parties,” said Natia Turnava, acting Governor of the NBG. “The committee selected Ripple due to its technical excellence and the expertise of its team. We look forward to moving ahead with Ripple and we are grateful to all other participating companies for their interest and efforts in the selection process.
“Moving forward, the National Bank of Georgia and Ripple will now jointly plan the project execution and gradual rollout plan,” Ripple said.On Thursday, Ripple announced that the Dubai Financial Services Authority has approved the use of XRP within the Dubai International Financial Centre , enabling licensed virtual asset firms within the DIFC to incorporate XRP into their virtual asset services.