Bloggers Got It All Mixed Up Again: IMF Will Not Launch Its CBDC

Several reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is about to launch the global central bank digital currency (CBDC) last week, shook the crypto community. However, the information in the initial reports is far from being true.

The token called Unicoin Universal Currency Unit or UMU, was announced to become a legal tender for cross-border settlement. The headline "IMF launched its CBDC" created a lot of excitement, but recently the IMF issued a statement saying that it is not involved in this project.

The confusion arose simply because the announcement by the Digital Currency Monetary Authority (DCMA), which is actually a digital currency innovation advocacy group for monetary authorities behind the development of UMU coin, was made during the International Monetary Fund's Spring Meetings on April 10, 2023.

DCMA launching UMU, not IMF

The next step in this misinformation was taken by the media, which paraphrased and disseminated information to each other and to the masses.

The first DCMA press release admitted that the IMF:

"has not officially endorsed the Global Monetary Unit."

It also stated:

"Although the IMF has not officially endorsed Universal Monetary Unit, in reviewing the DCMA's Whitepaper and in weekly team discussions, the IMF has yet to state any objections to UMU's FX premium rates and its monetary approach."

Even though UMU is referred to as a CBDC, it can be more accurately described as a stablecoin that can be used for international bank transfers.