US Senate passes bill banning issuance of CBDCs

The ban is unrelated to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, but was added into the legislation. The bill, approved 89-10 in the vote in Senate, will now be viewed in the House of Representatives.

President Trump recently claimed that he will not sign any more bills into law until a voter ID law is passed, verifying American citizenship for vote the path for which remains unclear.

The bill reads that the Federal Reserve “may not issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary.”

Blockchain and digital assets organisations have spoken out in support of the ban, amid deliberations on the US CLARITY Act that will clarify digital asset legislation, and the approval of the GENIUS Act on stablecoins last year.

The Crypto Council for Innovation made a statement supporting the bill and the ban, commenting: “Legislative certainty on this subject will help foster the private-sector innovation driving U.S. leadership in digital assets while protecting Americans’ privacy.”

Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, commented: “A government-issued CBDC would threaten core American values — financial privacy, civil liberties and limits on state power — by giving the government unprecedented insight into (and potential leverage over) everyday transactions.”