Despite President Donald Trump's public opposition to a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the United States is quietly exploring a government-backed digital dollar behind closed doors, according to Timothy Massad, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Speaking at the Digital Money Summit 2026 in London on Tuesday, Massad told CoinDesk that the topic, while highly sensitive in Washington, is being actively considered. "The U.S. is a participant in Project Agora," he said, referring to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) initiative that unites seven central banks. He stressed that although no Federal Reserve official will publicly endorse a wholesale or retail CBDC, work on creating one is moving forward.
Mark Gould, chief Payments Executive at the Federal Reserve, also at the event, declined to discuss a central bank stablecoin, calling it outside the Fed’s current remit. However, when pressed, he acknowledged that a government-backed digital dollar would ultimately be the Federal Reserve’s responsibility.
The backdrop includes Trump’s March 2024 campaign vow to ban a CBDC, and a subsequent Senate vote in March 2025 that overwhelmingly passed an amendment (89-10) to prohibit the Fed from issuing a digital dollar. But that measure remains part of a broader housing bill that may stall in the House of Representatives. Massad argued that international experiments with tokenized finance and stablecoins are forcing the U.S. to develop its own settlement rails, adding that the evolution of tokenized finance will inevitably require a government-backed alternative.
