CBDCs by Jurisdiction

What a CBDC Is (and Is Not)

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a digital form of a country's fiat currency issued directly by that country's central bank. It's a liability of the central bank — just like physical cash — rather than a liability of a commercial bank (like the money in your checking account) or a private company (like a USDC balance issued by Circle). CBDCs are usually distinguished into 'retail' CBDCs (available to the general public) and 'wholesale' CBDCs (only for financial institutions to use for interbank settlement). The two categories have very different design considerations and policy implications.

Which Jurisdictions Are Doing What

**China's e-CNY** is the largest retail CBDC pilot in the world by users and merchant acceptance, with hundreds of millions of wallets. **The Bahamas' Sand Dollar** and **Nigeria's e-Naira** were early full retail launches — with mixed adoption results. **Sweden's e-krona** is in extended pilot. **The European Central Bank** launched the digital euro preparation phase in 2023 and is moving toward a possible launch decision. **The Bank of England's** digital pound is in design phase. **The Federal Reserve** has been the most cautious of the major central banks — no active retail CBDC development, but it participated in wholesale CBDC experiments like Project Cedar.

Why CBDCs Are Politically Charged

Retail CBDCs raise real privacy questions: if every citizen's transactions are recorded in a central bank ledger, the state has visibility into economic activity that cash could never provide. This has produced political opposition in some jurisdictions — the US in particular has seen legislation restricting CBDC development pending clear privacy protections. The other big political question is disintermediation of commercial banks: if citizens can hold central-bank money directly in a CBDC wallet, they might pull deposits out of commercial banks during stress, deepening bank runs. Design choices (holding limits, no-interest CBDCs, tiered access) attempt to mitigate these risks.

• CBDCs are digital central-bank money, issued directly by the state
• Retail CBDCs are for the general public; wholesale CBDCs are for banks
• China's e-CNY is the largest active retail CBDC pilot
• Privacy and bank-disintermediation concerns dominate the political debate