Bermuda’s Blockchain Utopia: Coins, Chaos, and Cowries 🐴💰

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Key Highlights

  • Bermuda to test stablecoin payments across government, banks, and businesses-because why not? 🤷
  • Coinbase and Circle to provide infrastructure, tools, and education. Spoiler: it’s all digital.
  • USDC to become the island’s new financial rail-no horses or carts allowed. 🐎➡️💻

The Government of Bermuda, in a bold move that would make even the most jaded Victorian explorer weep into his brandy, has partnered with Coinbase and Circle to “move large parts of its national economy onchain.” This, they claim, is not a metaphor. One imagines a scene where bureaucrats, armed with smartphones instead of quills, solemnly declare, “The future is blockchain!” while seagulls squawk in the background.

Unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos-a place where the air is thick with ambition and the Wi-Fi is free-the plan targets “practical use cases” (i.e., actual money moving). Government agencies, banks, insurers, and the beleaguered citizenry are now expected to adopt onchain payments. USDC, the stablecoin of choice, will serve as the primary settlement asset, while Coinbase provides the infrastructure. One wonders if the island’s only natural resources are now stablecoins and the occasional seagull.

We’re bringing an entire country onchain.

Bermuda is building the world’s first fully onchain national economy, with support from Coinbase and @Circle.

– Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) January 19, 2026

From Pilot Programs to National Rollout (Because Why Not?)

Government offices will test stablecoin payments, while banks and insurers embrace tokenization and digital settlement tools. Coinbase, ever the helpful neighbor, will also provide onboarding and education. One suspects this involves many Zoom calls and the occasional lecture on “onchain wallets.”

“This initiative is about lowering costs and creating opportunity,” said E. David Burt, a man who may or may not have once owned a seashell collection. “Traditional payment rails are expensive and restrictive,” he added, as if anyone in Bermuda had ever seen a train track. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, meanwhile, called the move “huge,” a term that, in crypto circles, is roughly equivalent to “I’ve seen the light and it’s 11% APY.”

Huge. An entire country is coming onchain, using USDC and @base.

Excited to support Bermuda’s transition toward an onchain economy that empowers the people, local businesses, and institutions 💪

Open financial systems will drive economic freedom.

– Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 19, 2026

Stablecoins: The New Island Currency (Or Just a Fancy Piggy Bank?)

Stablecoins, those paragons of stability (irony intended), are central to Bermuda’s grand design. USDC, which trades 1:1 with USD (because who needs inflation?), allows merchants to accept “fast, low-cost” payments. One can only assume this means transactions faster than a tourist’s withdrawal from an ATM. According to the announcement, several Bermudian businesses are already using stablecoins in live payment flows-a feat that would make even the most ardent tech bro blush.

USDC’s market value of $75.8 billion and 24h volume of $14.6 billion suggest it’s less a speculative asset and more a digital ledger for groceries. The partners argue that keeping transactions onchain helps economic value stay local-though one wonders if the seagulls will start investing in NFTs next.

Years in the Making (Or Just a Long Hype Cycle?)

Bermuda’s Digital Asset Business Act of 2018 was a masterstroke of regulatory foresight-or a desperate bid for relevance. By 2025, the island had licensed Coinbase and Circle under the watchful eye of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, a body that now spends more time on crypto than on actual money laundering. Momentum, they claim, “picked up” at the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum in 2025, where a USDC airdrop was distributed like confetti at a crypto-themed carnival.

An Aspirational Model (With Optional Participation?)

The government insists the project is “non-exclusive” and “voluntary”-a comforting reassurance for the 20% of residents who still prefer cash. Businesses and residents need not adopt blockchain tools, though one suspects the alternative is being gently encouraged to “opt out” of the future. By moving payments onchain, Bermuda aims to be a “test case” for blockchain at national scale-a phrase that, in any other context, would imply a pilot program for a doomed TV show.

Let’s hope the seagulls don’t start hoarding USDC next.

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2026-01-20 01:00