Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov took his country a step closer to issuing its own central bank digital currency Thursday, signing legislation that gives the «digital som» legal status.

The central Asian country is still deciding whether or not to issue a CBDC, but Thursday’s amendments to the Constitutional Law of the Kyrgyz Republic ensures that the digital som will be treated as legal tender if the central bank goes ahead with issuing a CBDC.

«The purpose of the Constitutional Law is to launch a pilot project of a prototype of a national digital currency, the ‘digital som,’ as well as to create a legal basis and its status,» a statement on the president’s site said.

Under the new provisions, the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic will be able to develop and approve rules for conducting payments on the digital som platform.

These provisions, described as amendments on the president’s website, were first adopted on March 20 by Kyrgyzstan’s supreme council. The country is due to begin testing the digital som this year, according to local news outlet Trend News Agency. The country is not expected to make a final decision on whether to issue the CBDC until next year.

The idea of CBDCs has been controversial among some crypto proponents, but countries like the U.K., Nigeria, Jamaica and the Bahamas — as well as the European Union’s multinational bloc — have moved in the direction of issuing a CBDC, while other countries like the U.S. have largely moved away from the idea of issuing one.

Hidden Road, the prime brokerage firm that’s being acquired by Ripple, has obtained approval to operate as a U.S. broker-dealer from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the company said Thursday.

The license, granted to its subsidiary Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC, will allow the firm to expand its fixed income prime brokerage platform, according to the press release. With the broker-dealer status, the firm plans to offer institutional clients a broader range of regulatory-compliant services in clearing, financing and prime brokerage of fixed income assets.

«[This] is a significant step in the development of Hidden Road’s fixed income prime brokerage platform and bolsters our capabilities in traditional financial markets,» Noel Kimmel, the firm’s president, said in a statement.

The development follows Hidden Road’s announcement earlier this month that it had entered into an agreement to be acquired for $1.25 billion by Ripple, the blockchain infrastructure services firm closely associated with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) network. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in the coming months.

Backed by Ripple’s resources, Hidden Road said it expects to scale services significantly and position itself as one of the largest non-bank prime brokers. The firm also said earlier that it plans to migrate its post-trade operations onto the XRPL network, aiming to reduce costs and streamline settlement processes.

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Crypto exchange giant Kraken has laid off hundreds of staffers across all areas of the business over the past several months, as the firm continues to streamline its operations ahead of a potential public listing in the U.S., according to two people familiar with the situation.

Kraken was reported to have laid off 400 staff, or about 15% of its workforce, at the end of October last year, when Silicon Valley investor and Kraken board member Arjun Sethi became co-CEO alongside David Ripley, who took the reins when former CEO Jesse Powell stepped down in 2023.

Since Sethi became co-CEO, “hundreds more have gone,” said a person familiar with the situation, who pointed to a rolling program of firings over and above the 15% cut late last year.

“They’re culling aggressively across all functions, and it’s a constant and ongoing thing. It’s about improving Kraken’s EBITA [earnings before interest, tax and amortization],” the person said.

When the CEO role was split last year, Sethi and Ripley said in a blog post that there was a need to shed “organizational layers” that had accumulated in Kraken, and make the business “leaner and faster.”

Several crypto firms are currently getting their houses in order to launch an initial public offering (IPO) this year or early next year. Kraken has also been pushing for increased revenues by acquiring businesses such as derivatives platform Ninja Trader, for instance, and recently announcing the addition of stock trading.

«Kraken’s business is thriving. We’re launching more new products than ever before, driving strong revenue growth, and rapidly expanding across our entire product portfolio — including through the agreement to acquire NinjaTrader, announced earlier this year,” a Kraken representative told CoinDesk.

«At the same time, we continuously evaluate our workforce to ensure it aligns with our strategic priorities. We’re approaching this with discipline and intention, making the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles and consolidate teams where redundancies exist, while continuing to hire in key areas of the business,» the Kraken spokesperson said.