Lithuania

Crypto’s rising popularity in Lithuania

• Bitcoin.com: Lithuania Rakes in 6.4 Million Euros From Selling Seized Cryptocurrency – November 2020
  Lithuania’s tax authority has sold the cryptocurrencies it previously seized for 6.4 million euros (approximately $7.6 million). The three cryptocurrencies confiscated were bitcoin, ether, and monero. This was the first time the tax authority sold seized cryptocurrencies.
  
  
• Cointelegraph: The Bank of Lithuania Released a Cryptocurrency – July 2020
  The Bank of Lithuania has released a digital, blockchain-based collector coin dedicated to the country’s Act of Independence of 1918 and its 20 signatories. Claiming a world first, the central bank says the digital coin represents “a bridge that brings together classical numismatics and rapidly evolving financial technologies.” Issued on July 23, the new LBCOIN is intended both as a national symbol and as a signal of the bank’s strategic choice to drive innovation in the field of finance and payments.
  
  
• Euronews: What is ‘LBCOIN,’ the new Lithuanian state-backed cryptocurrency? – July 2020
  The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of digital currencies by central banks in a bid to encourage people to turn to cashless payments. One such project is being led by Lithuania’s Central Bank, which will open a pre-sale for the world’s first digital collector coins – dubbed “LBCOINs” – on July 9 as part of its trial of blockchain technology and digital currencies. The Bank of Lithuania (BoL) has been developing the project since March 2018 and is now entering the final phase of the trial.