Estonia has not abandoned plans to issue its own cryptocurrency - the Estcoin, the country’s Prime Minister Juri Ratas said in an interview with Bloomberg.
He added, however, that the government hasn’t yet considered the topic, which was raised last summer by a junior government official.
“Estonia is open to challenges,” Ratas said.
“But this presumes financial regulation must be very thoroughly considered in terms of what it is exactly,” he added.
The Premier added that the country has to be careful on “new financial instruments.”
“The initiators will have to describe what they have in mind,” he said.
The Estcoin was proposed last summer by Kaspar Korjus, who serves as managing director of the country’s e-residency program. However, it drew sharp criticism from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in September, who stated that the only currency of the Eurozone was the Euro.
Korju said in a December statement that his proposals don’t include an alternative currency to the Euro, and added that Issuing crypto tokens would add incentives to e-residents to create companies in Estonia.
The boss of the initiative wants to offer the cryptocurrency to more than 27,000 people - mainly from Finland, Russia and Ukraine - who use e-residency.