Central bank digital currencies by country
A wide range of countries and currency unions have explored, piloted, or deployed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which serve as direct liabilities of a central bank and legal tender alongside physical cash and bank deposits. National initiatives generally focus either on wholesale CBDCs for interbank settlements or retail CBDCs for use by the general public.
Overview
A wide range of countries and currency unions have explored, piloted, or deployed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which serve as direct liabilities of a central bank and legal tender alongside physical cash and bank deposits. National initiatives generally focus either on wholesale CBDCs for interbank settlements or retail CBDCs for use by the general public. Surveys by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and tracking by the Atlantic Council indicate that over 130 jurisdictions, representing 98 percent of global GDP, are actively exploring CBDCs, with over 90 percent of surveyed central banks engaged in research or testing. Full retail rollouts include the Bahamas (Sand Dollar, 2020), the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (DCash, 2021), Nigeria (eNaira, 2021), and Jamaica (JAM-DEX, 2022). Several large economies have deployed extensive pilots, including China with the digital renminbi, India with the digital rupee, Russia with the digital ruble, and the European Central Bank with preparations for a digital euro, whereas the United States halted federal CBDC initiatives in January 2025.
Australia
On 9 August 2022, the Reserve Bank of Australia announced a research project to explore a CBDC in Australia, in collaboration with the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC).
Bahamas
On 20 October 2020, the Central Bank of the Bahamas introduced the "Sand Dollar" as a digital legal currency equivalent to the traditional Bahamian dollar.
Brazil
The Central Bank of Brazil was developing a digital version of the Brazilian sovereign currency, known as Drex, based on the guidelines established in May 2021, and aiming to release the CBDC by the end of 2024. It received praise from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its role in driving financial innovation and expanding digital financial services in Latin America.
China
Since 2014, China's central bank has been working on a project called DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment) or digital renminbi, often also referred to as the "digital yuan" as it would be backed by the yuan. At the end of 2017, China's central bank organized a number of banks and institutions to jointly develop the DCEP system. In April 2020, DCEP began to be tested in four big Chinese cities: Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an and Chengdu. The Shenzhen and Suzhou trials chose participants through a lottery, enabling them to use the DCEP in designated specific areas. The Shenzhen trial only included online payment functionalities, generally using QR codes like Alipay and WeChat Pay. However, along with online payments, the Suzhou trials also enabled users to make near-field communication (NFC) offline payments. This feature was originally designed for people in rural areas who do not have reliable internet access. After the CBDC pilot, the Suzhou municipal government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the New York-based blockchain startup Cypherium to assist the city in technology development. In 2021, Chinese cities further expanded the use of the digital yuan, officially known as e-CNY, within their public transportation networks. Chengdu became the first city to implement e-CNY payments across its entire public transportation system, including all buses and subway lines. This integration is part of a broader pilot operation phase aiming to test the digital currency's feasibility and utility in everyday transactions. Subsequently, Beijing and Suzhou also integrated e-CNY into their public transit systems, with Beijing enabling e-CNY payments on all 24 subway lines and Suzhou on its newly opened subway line 5. This expansion marks a significant step in China's efforts to enhance the practical usage of its central bank digital currency, illustrating the government's commitment to digitizing the national currency for widespread public use. At the end of 2021, there were 261 million users in the extended trial who had made US$13.8 billion of transactions. It was also made available to foreign visitors at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where it saw limited use due to established payment methods, Visa, and limited publicity. On 31 March 2022, the People's Bank of China announced that testing had been expanded to six additional regions: Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and six cities in the province of Zhejiang hosting the 2022 Asian Games (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua). A statement from the PBOC indicated that Beijing and Zhangjiakou were also included in testing following the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Eastern Caribbean
The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) launched the CBDC known as "DCash" in March 2021 to Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia, becoming the first CBDC to be introduced in a currency union. It subsequently rolled out the CBDC to the rest of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Montserrat and Anguilla. On 12 January 2024, DCash was paused due to technical issues that prevented users from accessing their digital wallets. A redesigned platform, DCash 2.0, was scheduled for introduction in 2026.
Ecuador
One of the earliest retail CBDC initiatives occurred in Ecuador between 2014 and 2018, when the Central Bank of Ecuador operated "Dinero Electrónico" (DE) through mobile networks without distributed ledger technology. While some analysts cited low public adoption as a primary reason for its cancellation, the system reached over 400,000 registered accounts and US$10 million in deposits. Scholars concluded that its decommissioning was primarily driven by opposition from commercial banks, which viewed the platform as a threat to their retail payment revenue and raised concerns about potential de-dollarization.
European Union/Eurozone
In the Eurozone, the Bank of Spain's former governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordoñez has called for the introduction of a digital euro, but the European Central Bank (ECB) has so far denied such possibility. Nevertheless, in December 2019, the ECB stated that "The ECB will also continue to assess the costs and benefits of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that could ensure that the general public will remain able to use central bank money even if the use of physical cash eventually declines". On 2 October 2020 the ECB nonetheless published a report on the proposed digital euro and kickstarted a two-year study phase to prepare a decision for a central bank digital currency. After completing the study phase, the ECB decided on 18 October 2023 to enter into a preparation phase for the potential issuance of a digital euro. The day after an executive order signed by Donald Trump promoted U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins, on 24 January 2025, European Central Bank (ECB) board member Piero Cipollone said "I guess the key word here [in Trump's executive order] is worldwide" and "This solution, you all know, further disintermediates banks as they lose fees, they lose clients...That's why we need a digital euro." In August 2025, ECB president Christine Lagarde urged European lawmakers to "seize the 'euro moment'" and rapidly put in place a legislative framework to "pave the way for the potential introduction of a digital euro," to address the risk posed by U.S. dollar-linked stablecoins.
France and Switzerland
In June 2021, the Swiss National Bank and Bank of France launched a cross-border CBDC payments trial designed for wholesale (bank-to-bank, rather than with regular consumers) transactions. Switzerland had previously tested a digital Swiss franc for instant transactions on SIX Swiss Exchange, its premier stock exchange. In June 2024, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced an extension of the pilot (Project Helvetia III) for two additional years to explore new use cases and expand settlement scope.
India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 16 December 2020 announced a regulatory sandbox to test next generation technologies on cross-border payments to collect field test data and evidence of benefits and risks on the financial ecosystem. On 29 January 2021, the Government of India proposed a bill to ban trading and investments in cryptocurrencies while giving legal authority to the RBI to develop a CBDC. During the announcement of the 2022 Union budget of India, Nirmala Sitharaman from the Ministry of Finance announced the roll out of the Digital Rupee from 2023. As per the RBI Payments Vision 2025 document released on 17 June 2022, CBDC will be used for domestic and cross-border payment processing and settlement. RBI classified CBDC into retail CBDC designed to meet individual financial needs and wholesale CBDC traded between the RBI and commercial banks for currency distribution and settlement. A pilot project for the digital rupee was launched on 1 November 2022.
Indonesia
Bank Indonesia initiated Project Garuda to develop an Indonesian central bank digital currency on 30 November 2022. Bank Indonesia issued a white paper on the architectural framework for the digital rupiah. Following the enactment of the Law on Financial Sector Development and Strengthening, the digital rupiah was formally recognized as an official form of the rupiah.
Iran
Between 2016 and 2018, interest in CBDCs in Iran was described by American analysts as an effort to circumvent United States sanctions.
Wikipedia contributors · Central bank digital currencies by country · revision 1377146964 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Plain text extracted and formatting adapted; tags derived from linked topics.