The Marshall Islands, a small island nation in the western Pacific Ocean, plans to make big waves in the cryptocurrency world. Earlier this week, its parliament, the Nitijeļa, authorized the government to create its own cryptocurrency – the sovereign – to serve as an official legal tender. A minister-in-assistance to President Hilda Heine said that the initial coin offering for the sovereign could be ready by the end of the year, adding that the cryptocurrency would help boost local budgets. The announcement is noteworthy for a couple of different reasons. First, the Marshall Islands is one of about two dozen countries that use the U.S. dollar exclusively or in coordination with other currencies. Smaller countries heavily dependent on economic relations with a large partner like the United States often find it more appealing or easier to simply forgo their own national currency and adopt the larger country's.