According to Cointelegraph, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has announced plans to advance its research on a digital lari central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a limited-access live pilot environment. Nine companies, including Ripple Labs, will participate in the project, with one being selected to move forward to the next stage of testing.

In a paper released in February, the NBG stated that it was considering a two-tier design for its CBDC, with wallets provided by a third party. The digital lari would be programmable and support asset tokenization. Varlam Ebanoidze, NBG's head of fintech, said in June that use cases for a digital lari include the provision of agricultural insurance and automation of real estate transactions. He added that the NBG is thinking about integration into the European Union and wants to be interoperable with the digital euro while maintaining monetary freedom.

The NBG first announced that it was considering issuing a CBDC in May 2021, without providing a timeline. In January, it solicited expressions of interest from fintech firms to participate in a limited live pilot. On September 8, the NBG announced that it would participate as an observer in the Bank of International Settlements' (BIS) Project mBridge, which involves China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, joining about 10 other observer countries. It also plans to leverage knowledge and expertise from the BIS's Project Aurum.

In addition to Ripple, the pilot's participants include Augentic, Bitt, Broxus Holdings, Currency Network, DCM, eCurrency Mint, FARI Solutions, and Sovereign Wallet. Ripple is known to be involved in CBDC projects around the world, active in countries such as Colombia, Montenegro, Hong Kong, Bhutan, and Palau.