Deniz 
In an effort to increase adoption, the Bahamas, the first nation in the world to establish a central bank digital currency, is drafting rules allowing commercial banks to provide access to the Sand Dollar, Reuters reported Monday.
The governor of the Bahamas‘ central bank, John Rolle, told Reuters that the government is developing rules meant to essentially compel commercial banks to issue the Sand Dollar, the CBDC announced in 2020, as use of it remained restricted.
Adding that the Bahamas authorities have begun to indicate the new regulatory direction to local institutions, Rolle said the central bank expects a scenario “where all of the commercial banks will eventually be in that space.”
Officially starting in October 2020, the central bank of the Bahamas introduced the Sand Dollar. From the start of the year, the volume of Sand Dollars in circulation increased by 60.8% to $1.7 million as of the end of December 2023, central bank data showed.
Based on central bank data, the number of personal wallets for the Sand Dollar grew by 20% annually to 118,955 by the end of last year.
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