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Who's actually building one? Country cases
The CBDC landscape is uneven: a handful of live deployments, many pilots, and several major economies still in the research phase.
China — e-CNY
The is the largest live retail CBDC by transaction value. The PBOC began e-CNY research in 2014, pilots in 2020, and published its whitepaper in 2021. It operates on a two-tier, permissioned system with “controllable anonymity” — small transactions can be anonymous to merchants, but the central bank retains visibility. Adoption has been gradual despite significant state promotion; usage in retail payments remains a small share of total digital payments.
European Union — digital euro
The ECB’s digital euro completed its investigation phase (2021–2023) and entered the preparation phase in November 2023, examining holding limits, intermediation models, and privacy design. The preparation phase concluded in late 2025, and the project is moving toward technical readiness and a potential first issuance around 2029. No launch decision has been made; the project is explicitly positioned as a complement to cash, not a replacement.
United States — ruled out by executive order
The Federal Reserve never committed to issuing a CBDC, and a January 2025 executive order prohibits federal agencies from establishing, issuing, or promoting one. The Fed’s 2022 paper framed a CBDC as a potential means to preserve the dollar’s international role, while emphasizing any US CBDC would be privacy-preserving, intermediated, transferable, and identity-verified. The Fed launched in July 2023 as an instant-payment system, distinct from a CBDC.
India — e-Rupee
The RBI published its concept note in October 2022 and launched pilots for both wholesale and retail e-Rupee later that year. India has framed the e-Rupee as a complement to UPI (its wildly successful instant-payment system) rather than a replacement.
Nigeria — eNaira
Nigeria launched the eNaira in October 2021 — Africa’s first CBDC. Adoption has been slow despite multiple relaunches and incentives; the country’s high crypto P2P activity suggests demand for digital value transfer, but the eNaira has not yet captured it at scale.
Others worth knowing
- Bahamas — Sand Dollar (2020): the first retail CBDC to launch nationwide, targeting financial inclusion across dispersed islands.
- Sweden — e-krona pilot (2020): a response to declining cash use in one of the world’s most cashless economies.
- Jamaica, China, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia — all running pilots or live deployments of varying scope (the Eastern Caribbean’s DCash pilot was discontinued in 2024).