The coronavirus pandemic has forced people to change several social behavioral habits. Along with maintaining social distance from one another, people are also averse to using notes, coins or cards as they might transmit COVID-19.
A new report from the Bank for International Settlements suggested that social distancing procedures and the “government-to-person payment schemes” have accelerated the efforts towards launching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The paper shows that the public interest in CBDCs has exceeded that of Bitcoin (BTC) and Libra in 2020.