The U.S. Senate voted 85-5 on June 22 to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan package that embeds the first statutory prohibition on Federal Reserve CBDC issuance through December 31, 2030. The House followed with a 358-32 vote on June 23. The bill now awaits President Trump's ...
"I see no reason for the U.S. to have a central bank digital currency. A CBDC is a sign of weakness — it's something that countries without deep capital markets resort to." — Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary
The U.S. Senate voted 85-5 on June 22 to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan package that embeds the first statutory prohibition on Federal Reserve CBDC issuance through December 31, 2030. The House followed with a 358-32 vote on June 23. The bill now awaits President Trump's signature.
Section 1001 of the legislation bars the Board of Governors and all Federal Reserve banks from issuing or creating "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." The provision carries a four-year sunset. Stablecoins are explicitly exempted, with the statute carving out "dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private."
The bill arrives as 134 countries representing 98% of global GDP explore CBDCs in some form, according to the Atlantic Council's tracker. Forty-nine nations are actively piloting digital currencies. The European Central Bank expects to begin a 12-month digital euro pilot in the second half of 2027, with full issuance targeted for 2029. The U.S. is now the largest economy to impose a statutory moratorium on central bank digital money.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act merged two earlier proposals: the Senate's ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 and the House's Housing for the 21st Century Act. The final text was released June 16, 2026, after months of bicameral negotiation between Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
The Senate approved the package 85-5 on June 22. Senators Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee cast the five dissenting votes. The House passed the amended bill 358-32 the following day. The legislation now goes to President Trump's desk, where signing is expected within days.
The CBDC ban was not in the original housing text. House Republicans pushed for its inclusion during conference negotiations, embedding the prohibition in Section 1001 — a digital-asset title appended to a 600-page housing affordability package. The legislative vehicle allowed a provision that might have faced standalone debate to clear both chambers with supermajority support.
The statutory language is broad. Section 1001 prohibits the Federal Reserve from:
The ban expires December 31, 2030. It does not require the Fed to terminate existing research programs, but it prevents the issuance of any form of central bank digital money — retail or wholesale — for four years.
The prohibition arrives after sustained executive-branch opposition. In February 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Congress that a CBDC had been taken "off the table." Fed Governor Christopher Waller has repeatedly questioned the utility of a digital dollar, calling it a solution in search of a problem. President Trump signed Executive Order 14178 on January 23, 2025, which prohibited executive agencies from undertaking actions to establish or promote CBDCs. Section 1001 converts that policy preference into statutory law.
The bill's most consequential language may be what it exempts. The statute explicitly protects "dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private." This language draws a statutory distinction between government-issued digital money and private-sector stablecoins.
The exemption means the law does not restrict:
This carve-out aligns Section 1001 with the GENIUS Act, enacted July 18, 2025, which established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. Together, the two laws encode a clear policy choice: the U.S. dollar's digital future will be built by private issuers operating under federal supervision, not by the central bank.
The ban does not resolve all ambiguity. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York remains an active participant in Project Agorá, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) initiative exploring tokenization of wholesale cross-border payments. Eight central banks and over 40 financial institutions participate.
Project Agorá effectively uses a wholesale CBDC — a central bank digital liability restricted to financial institutions for interbank settlement. The BIS has been careful to avoid the term "CBDC" in describing the project. As of May 27, 2026, participants plan to move beyond simulations toward testing real-value transactions.
Former CFTC Chair Timothy Massad raised the concern publicly in May 2026, suggesting the Fed was developing CBDC-like infrastructure through Agorá despite the executive order prohibition. The statutory ban in Section 1001 extends to digital assets "substantially similar" to a CBDC, which could create compliance questions for the Fed's continued participation.
Whether Project Agorá's wholesale settlement tokens constitute a "substantially similar" instrument is a legal question that Section 1001 does not answer definitively. The four-year sunset provides a natural window for resolution.
The combined effect of the CBDC ban and the GENIUS Act regulatory framework creates a protected competitive lane for private stablecoin issuers. The market context:
Current market size: Total stablecoin market capitalization stands at approximately $307.5 billion as of June 2026, up from $229.2 billion in April 2025 — a 34% increase over 14 months.
Market concentration: Tether (USDT) holds approximately $188 billion in market cap, representing 65% of total stablecoin supply. Circle's USDC holds approximately $75.8 billion, accounting for roughly 25%. The two issuers control approximately 92% of the market. No other stablecoin exceeds $10 billion.
Regulatory implementation: The GENIUS Act's rulemaking deadline is July 18, 2026 — less than four weeks away. The OCC, FDIC, and FinCEN/OFAC have all published proposed rules. The effective date is the earlier of 18 months post-enactment (January 2027) or 120 days after final regulations are issued.
The legislative environment effectively guarantees that for at least four years, private stablecoin issuers will face no competition from a Federal Reserve digital dollar. For Circle, which filed for an IPO in January 2024, and for Tether, which has expanded its reserve disclosures, the regulatory clarity may accelerate institutional adoption.
The U.S. ban marks a widening split in how major economies approach digital sovereign money.
European Union: The ECB expects to announce technical standards for the digital euro by summer 2026. The European Parliament's ECON committee voted on the ECB's legislative proposals on May 5, 2026. If the regulation passes in 2026, a 12-month pilot is scheduled for H2 2027, with potential full issuance in 2029. The ECB is also launching "Pontes," a settlement solution for DLT-based transactions, in Q3 2026.
China: The digital yuan (e-CNY) remains the world's largest CBDC pilot. By December 2025, retail e-CNY had processed more than 3.4 billion transactions worth approximately 16.7 trillion renminbi (about $2.3 trillion), according to BIS data.
Global count: 134 countries are exploring CBDCs. Forty-nine are actively piloting. Three — the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Nigeria — have fully launched retail CBDCs, though adoption in all three remains limited relative to existing payment rails.
The divergence creates a structural asymmetry. While the EU and China invest in state-issued digital money, the U.S. has chosen to channel digital dollar innovation through the private sector. The policy bet is that regulated stablecoins can deliver the functional benefits of a CBDC — programmability, faster settlement, reduced intermediation — without the surveillance and centralization risks that have driven bipartisan opposition.
The CBDC ban operates in parallel with an accelerating stablecoin regulatory calendar:
| Date | Milestone | |------|-----------| | July 18, 2025 | GENIUS Act enacted (Senate 68-30, House 308-122) | | April 7, 2026 | FDIC issues proposed rulemaking for stablecoin issuers | | April 10, 2026 | FinCEN/OFAC joint proposed rule on AML/sanctions compliance | | June 22, 2026 | Senate passes CBDC ban (85-5) | | June 23, 2026 | House passes CBDC ban (358-32) | | July 18, 2026 | GENIUS Act rulemaking deadline | | January 18, 2027 | GENIUS Act effective date (18-month backstop) | | December 31, 2030 | CBDC ban sunset |
The convergence of the CBDC moratorium and stablecoin regulation creates a four-year window in which the private stablecoin market will operate under a federally sanctioned framework with no prospect of government competition.
85-5 and 358-32. The CBDC ban cleared both chambers with supermajority votes, reflecting bipartisan consensus against a Federal Reserve digital dollar. The margin makes reversal before the 2030 sunset politically unlikely.
Stablecoins won by statutory exclusion. The explicit exemption for "open, permissionless, and private" dollar-denominated currency is the strongest legislative endorsement of private stablecoins to date.
Project Agorá is the unresolved question. The Fed's participation in BIS wholesale settlement experiments may test the "substantially similar" boundary in Section 1001. No enforcement mechanism is specified in the statute.
$307.5 billion with a tailwind. The stablecoin market enters the GENIUS Act implementation window with a statutory guarantee of no government competition through 2030.
Global divergence deepens. The EU targets a 2029 digital euro launch. China has processed $2.3 trillion in e-CNY transactions. The U.S. is betting on private-sector rails.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act converts executive-branch CBDC opposition into statute. For four years, the Federal Reserve cannot issue a digital dollar. The practical effect is to designate private stablecoins as the U.S. digital dollar infrastructure — a policy choice reinforced by the GENIUS Act's regulatory framework reaching its implementation deadline in less than a month.
The unanswered questions are narrow but significant. Project Agorá's wholesale settlement architecture may test the statute's boundaries. The 2030 sunset means the ban is a moratorium, not a permanent prohibition. And the global landscape continues to shift: the EU and China are building state-issued alternatives, creating a fragmented international payments architecture.
For now, the legislative signal is unambiguous. The U.S. has chosen private stablecoins over a central bank digital currency. The market — $307.5 billion and growing — will operate under federal oversight with no government competitor for at least four years.