On 19 June National Unity Government (NUG) introduced the Digital Myanmar Kyat (DMMK), Myanmar’s first blockchain-based digital currency.

The DMMK will be equivalent to the Myanmar Kyat and can be used both locally and internationally.

According to the NUG, the public will be able to keep and spend the currency by using NUG Pay as a mobile wallet.

The currency denomination will be kyats and one DMMK kyat will be worth the same as one Myanmar kyat, so the NUG will continue to publish the kyat exchange rate on the NUG Pay official web page.

The DMMK is officially recognised by the NUG and like the Myanmar kyat it can be used for payments.

The NUG Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment announced that “the DMMK is a currency that is completely free from the financial mechanism of the military regime.''

A launch date for the DMMK will be announced soon. Initially, it will be available on Android phones before becoming available on iOS phones.

Following the NUG’s announcement that it will introduce a digital currency the Central Bank, which is controlled by the Military Council announced on 10 June that the use of unofficial mobile payments is illegal.

It threatened to take action under the Financial Institutions Act against anyone found to be making payments using unofficial online wallets, a crime punishable by a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Currently, there are many other legal online payment systems and wallets that use the Myanmar kyat. One, Mytel Pay, is actually a junta business venture and MPT Pay is operated by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).