Trump Withholds Signature on CBDC Ban, Demands Voter-ID Law

President Donald Trump is refusing to sign a housing bill that would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030. He wants Congress to first pass a separate law requiring proof of citizenship to vote, a measure the Senate rejected last week.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cleared the Senate 85-5 on June 22 and the House 358-32, margins well above the two-thirds needed to override a veto. The bill includes a provision that prohibits the Fed or any Federal Reserve bank from issuing, creating, or circulating a CBDC until Dec. 31, 2030. Trump canceled a planned signing ceremony and told reporters he will not sign until lawmakers send him the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act.

That voter-ID bill failed its most recent Senate vote 48-50 on June 4. Four Republicans joined every Democrat to block it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signaled he is unlikely to bring it back to the floor this session, leaving the standoff without an obvious resolution.

The CBDC provision itself carves out an explicit exemption for private dollar-denominated stablecoins that are "open, permissionless, and private." That shields tokens issued by companies such as Circle and Tether from the ban. The approach reflects a broader Washington consensus: let the private sector issue digital dollars under federal supervision, and keep the central bank out of retail money.

Crypto advocates have long argued that a Fed CBDC could enable government surveillance of transactions, a concern that echoes debates in other jurisdictions (see IMF's Tokenization Pitch Raises Government Control Questions). Trump laid the groundwork for the prohibition in January 2025 with an executive order barring his administration from any work on a retail digital dollar, warning it would threaten "the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States."

Because the housing package passed with veto-proof margins, the ban is widely expected to become law in the coming days regardless of whether Trump stages a signing event. The constitutional clock will eventually force the bill into law without his signature if he does not act.

Internationally, the U.S. stance runs against the grain. More than 130 countries representing the bulk of global GDP have explored central bank digital currencies. China has piloted its digital yuan. A four-year U.S. ban would leave the world's largest economy on the sidelines of a technology its main geopolitical rivals are actively deploying.

The next step is whether Trump relents, Congress revisits the voter bill, or the housing package becomes law without a presidential signature. Either way, a U.S. central bank digital currency would remain off the table until the end of the decade.