Opinion
CBDCs bridge the 1.3 billion unbanked cash-digital divide. Governments must actively promote them as trusted, low-cost gateways to formal financial inclusion.
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CBDC News
A central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is a digital version of a region’s fiat currency, put out by the region’s monetary authority. CBDCs gained a significant spotlight in 2020, with numerous countries expressing interest in their own versions of the asset type. Some countries pushed faster than others toward their own native digital currency. China, for example, moved quickly toward the prospect of its own CBDC, called the digital yuan.
The Bahamas burst on the central bank digital currency market in 2020 with the first CBDC. Called the Sand Dollar, the country’s CBDC is a national digital currency for the region, holding the same value as the Bahamian dollar. CBDCs differ from crypto-native stablecoins put out by crypto industry entities. Such stablecoins aim to track the value of underlying assets, such as the U.S. dollar, although the stablecoins themselves are not official regional currencies and are often overseen by companies.
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The ECB’s Piero Cipollone said the central bank wants key technical standards for a possible digital euro locked in by this summer so banks and merchants can prepare for the rollout.
752 - News
The initiative targets how a digital euro would operate across existing payment rails, with emphasis on offline transactions and interoperability.
1845 - Analysis
Republicans in the US House of Representatives have threatened the future of an affordable housing bill if it doesn’t include an outright ban on CBDCs.
1713 - News
The amendment appears in a broader housing bill and revives language from earlier standalone efforts to block a Fed-issued digital dollar.
1987 - News
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is reportedly weighing an early exit from the bank just as the EU enters a crucial phase for the digital euro.
3308 - News
Joachim Nagel said euro-pegged stablecoins would offer the bloc more independence from US dollar-pegged coins soon to be allowed under the GENIUS Act.
9518 - News
European lawmakers endorsed the ECB’s digital euro plans as a way to shore up the bloc’s monetary sovereignty, while reiterating that the central bank must remain independent.
2812 - News
The six-month central bank pilot brings together market infrastructure providers, banks and Web3 companies to assess how core UK markets could move onchain.
5288 - News
Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio warns that CBDCs will eliminate financial privacy and enable governments to tax, seize funds and cut off political opponents.
2769 - News
The latest announcement from the People's Bank of China follows months of flip-flopping on privately issued yuan-pegged stablecoins.
8750 - How to
India is exploring cross-border use of the e-rupee to reduce payment costs, improve trade settlement efficiency and expand the rupee’s global role.
2390 - News
European Central Bank executive Piero Cipollone has argued that rising geopolitical tensions make a European-controlled payments system a strategic necessity.
1658 - News
The initiative comes as enforcement actions and pending market structure legislation raise questions about how privacy tools and open-source developers are treated.
1753 - Analysis
Crypto’s move into banks and state-backed systems is accelerating a clash between financial privacy and public ledger design, said Aleo’s Yaya Fanusie.
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