Riding on the world's first national digital currency SOV launched by the Marshall Islands, ALGO triggers another wave of coin price increase.

Algorand released new news in March - the Marshall Islands national digital currency, which quickly pushed up the coin price.

In the past two days, Algorand (ALGO) has surged over 22%, rising from $0.31 to $0.38. Previously reported, following the potential reasons for the sharp rise of Algorand in February, the project's latest announcement in March - the Marshall Islands' national digital currency, has once again boosted the coin's price.

In February 2018, officials from the Republic of the Marshall Islands announced plans to launch an ICO "this year." Two years have swiftly passed, and finally, there is new information. The digital currency, known as "the Marshallese Sovereign" (SOV), the Marshall Islands' sovereign currency, will be launched using Algorand's technology. It is said that the introduction of SOV is to meet the long-term needs of the country, and after circulating with the US dollar, it will help internationalize the local economy.

Additionally, the Marshall Islands government stated that they will also utilize Algorand's blockchain capabilities and a development company's identity management and compliance platform to oversee SOV comprehensively.

Why SOV Might Be the World's First National Digital Currency

There isn't much information available about the tokenomics of SOV. According to the press release: "The supply of SOV will be algorithmically fixed at a 4% annual growth rate to prevent uncontrolled inflation. SOV will be launched through token presales: the future rights of SOV will be part of the planned TRMI scheduled to start this year, sold through a series of auctions." Consistent with the 2018 statement, SOV will publicly sell rights, but detailed information on how the sales will be conducted is not yet available.

This initiative is primarily executed by a company called SFB, headquartered in New York. Information on their official website is quite limited, and the company's members include prominent figures from AI blockchain project SingularityNET and former Secretary-General of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Given that SOV aims to circulate alongside the US dollar, if it were to be introduced ahead of China's Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DC/EP), and considering that DC/EP initially may not circulate with international currencies or cryptocurrencies, SOV could potentially be hailed as the "world's first national digital currency."

The Marshall Islands cover an area of 181 square kilometers (slightly larger than Kinmen), with a population of only 70,000 people, and a GDP of nearly $200 million (almost one-thousandth of Taiwan's). While a national digital currency may facilitate currency circulation internationally and potentially benefit local investment and tourism industries, the digitalization of its currency may have limited overall economic impact globally.

Further Reading

• Central Banks of Various Countries Rush to Progress, with Over 18 Countries Having Digital Currency Plans
• Analysis: Possible Reasons Behind ALGO's Surprising 40% Surge

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