The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has hinted that the digital lari project, the exploration of a potential central bank digital currency, is unlikely to move toward implementation in the near future. The initiative, carried out between 2021 and 2023, allowed the NBG to test core digital currency technologies and build expertise that will inform future financial innovation and oversight.
Varlam Ebanoidze, Head of the Financial and Supervisory Technologies Development Department at the NBG stated that while the pilot phase of the project provided valuable technical and regulatory insights, no decision has been madeto introduce a digital Georgian currency.
“The testing of the digital GEL was conducted in a controlled environment across five pilot cases. We gained important practical experience, but the final decision to issue a digital lari was never made,” Ebanoidze told BMG. He emphasized that Georgian law currently recognizes only one official means of payment, limiting the possibility of introducing an alternative digital currency.
Ebanoidze noted that the NBG’s main objective was to experiment with emerging technologies such as tokenization and smart contracts, rather than to commit to launching a digital currency. He added that insights gained from the digital lari project are now being used within the regulatory sandbox for tokenized deposits.
