Outside Source
President Donald Trump has promised to “never allow” a CBDC in the United States, but stablecoin adoption is well on its way.
Analysis
Now that US President Donald Trump has taken his oath of office, the chances for a US central bank digital currency (CBDC) are all but finished.
Trump has been a vocal opponent of CBDCs, promising on the campaign trail in New Hampshire in 2024 that he would “never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency,” as he claimed it would give the government “absolute control over your money.”
Trump made the promise early on in the campaign — back in January 2024 — but there’s little to suggest that the president has changed his mind. Top picks for Trump’s Cabinet and prominent members of the Republican-controlled Congress have also vocally opposed a CBDC.
However, US lawmakers are still focused on proliferating digital currencies. In the absence of a digital dollar and with significant bipartisan support, stablecoin adoption could see significant growth under the incoming administration.
CBDCs are dead; long live the stablecoin
“CBDC in the US is dead under Trump,” Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, told Cointelegraph. “Instead, they’re going down the private stablecoin route, and the Fed has no control over that.”
Indeed, stablecoin legislation is already making its way through the system. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Patrick McHenry introduced the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023, while in the Senate, Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand submitted the Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act.
These bills would provide regulatory guardrails that the industry has been saying it needs in order to succeed.
Related: Pro-Bitcoin lawmakers pack Congress as partisan gridlock looms
Some have suggested the industry could see new stablecoin regulations soon, as it would be a quick win for representatives on both sides of the aisle, who will need to defend their seats again in 2026.
Kendrick said, “I think, under Trump, you’ll get passage in the next few months of a stablecoin bill that creates regulation. You’ll then probably get more TradFi players issuing stablecoins in the US […] and you’ll also get more surety behind the two largest stablecoins, Tether and USDC.”
The pivot to private stablecoins can be explained by two important factors: the clear privacy concerns surrounding CBDCs and the fact that central banks are having a hard time convincing the public of their benefits.
CBDCs raise concerns about privacy and government oversight
Reuters and The Washington Post have reported that the Trump administration is planning mass dismissals of federal employees, paving the way for them to be replaced by appointees loyal to the administration.
Administration spokesperson Brian Hughes told Reuters, “The Trump Administration will have a place for people serving in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of working men and women’s tax dollars.”
This rhetoric fits into the wider Republican skepticism of government involvement in the financial industry and the desire to deregulate that industry broadly. It comes as no surprise then that CBDCs, which are already a subject of public privacy concerns, should be a target.
This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
