Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
A digital form of a country's official currency, issued and controlled directly by its central bank.
A CBDC is government money in digital form. Unlike a stablecoin issued by a private company, it's a direct liability of the central bank—the digital twin of physical cash, but programmable and trackable.
China's e-CNY is the largest live pilot, used by hundreds of millions in trials by 2024. The European Central Bank and others were still in the design phase as of 2025.
Critics flag the surveillance angle. A currency the state can freeze or program with spending rules hands central banks power that paper cash never gave them.
Related terms
Government-issued money like the US dollar or euro, backed by state authority rather than gold or any commodity.
StablecoinA crypto token designed to hold a steady value, almost always pegged one-to-one with the US dollar.
TradFiTraditional finance, the established system of banks, exchanges, and regulators that crypto positions itself against.
CryptocurrencyA digital asset secured by cryptography and recorded on a blockchain, free of any central issuer.