Varlam Ebanoidze, Head of the Financial and Supervisory Technologies Development Department at the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), stated that while the NBG gained valuable experience through the digital lari project, there is currently no certainty that a digital version of the Georgian currency will be implemented.
Speaking to BMG, Ebanoidze noted that global interest in central bank digital currencies has slowed, and the primary goal of the project was to test technologies such as tokenization and smart contracts in a limited environment.
“The testing of digital GEL in a controlled setting, with five pilot cases, is complete. We have gained practical experience, but the final decision to introduce digital lari was never made. Georgian law recognizes only one official means of payment,” he explained.
He added that the insights from the digital lari project are now being applied in the regulatory sandbox for tokenized deposits, helping the NBG oversee innovative products issued by the private sector.
“Our goal was to test technologies and accumulate knowledge. Whether digital GEL will ever be implemented in real mode is still uncertain, it might not be introduced,” Ebanoidze said.
The National Bank’s digital lari project was conducted primarily between 2021 and 2023, providing foundational experience in digital currency technologies.
