Signal CBDC Banned in United States Until 2031

Summary

The provision, barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, was included in the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644) introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren. The bill passed the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32. The law states the Federal Reserve Board or a Federal reserve bank may not issue or create a CBDC or substantially similar digital asset directly or through an intermediary, with a sunset date of December 31, 2030, extending the ban until January 1, 2031. It carves out an exception for permissionless, private dollar-denominated currencies that fully preserve the privacy protections of physical currency, and it blocks pilot programs without congressional approval. Read alongside the GENIUS Act, which President Trump signed into law on July 18, 2025 establishing the first federal framework for private stablecoins, the ban completes a two-part architecture in which Congress regulated and cleared the field for private dollar-pegged tokens — chiefly Tether and Circle, which together control roughly 90% of a stablecoin market capitalised at more than $316 billion — while blocking the Fed from building its own.