Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but saying "anyone who opposes the digital euro" is effectively an enemy of the state does not exactly inspire confidence that the CBDC won't be abused.

Can confirm. I never leave home with an onion, a tomato, a knife, and a towel.

In a moment of reflection, Central Bank of Nigeria official Musa Itopa Jimoha admit that the Nigerian CBDC experience had not been a "rosy story." Nigerians were not interested in the eNaira because the market was already providing solutions. He warned other central banks not to issue a CBDC unless there is a real problem that it will actually solve. Interestingly, he also advised creating a separate legal entity to handle the CBDC so that operations are not directly under the central bank. cbdctracker.hrf.org

To be fair, it's not an enjoyable read, and it's a long one at that. I'll keep posting the more telling gems as I go, though. For instance, here's a fun fact for you: Not a single witness raised concerns about privacy and surveillance until after two years of congressional hearings. That witness was from the American Bankers Association and his testimony marked the first time Congress brought in bankers to hear their views on the Bank Secrecy Act. Every witness from the previous 2 years was a government official.

Good question. I should have noted that. This is the transcript from the congressional hearing in 1970. I’ve been going back through it for a new project I’m working on

While discussing the Bank Secrecy Act, Representative Patman said the quiet part out loud. He congratulated the Treasury for going "rather far" and "making a long step here" to establish capital controls. The Treasury quickly shot back saying not to call it that.

More than half of the authoritarian regimes across the world are publicly working on CBDCs. https://cbdctracker.hrf.org

Apparently, I crossed the line? Aurore Lalucq is officially the first government official to block me on social media. I was following her for 11 minutes before I got the error card.

Some good news on the CBDC front! Norway has joined the growing list of countries saying no to CBDC. https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/

After reading more than 300 pages of congressional transcripts from 1968-1970, I finally found the first instance in which someone said the Bank Secrecy Act would harm financial privacy. Clifford Sommer (American Bankers Association) urged Congress to reconsider what it was doing. Not a single witness before him (albeit, all government officials) seemed to be concerned about the Fourth Amendment or people's privacy.

I'm confused. Are you telling me to get out of here?

The New York Times points to the absence of interest payments on stablecoins as a negative. Yet, what it doesn't point out here is that it was _Congress_ that prohibited stablecoins from doing that.

Congratulations to , , , , and the whole team on 100 editions of the Financial Freedom Report. If you're not signed up, this is one of the few newsletters I read from top to bottom. https://hrf.org/program/financial-freedom/financial-freedom-reports/

Finally, on the last day of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, I've saved the worst CBDC experience in Africa for last: Nigeria. In the words of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the CBDC experience has not been a "rosy story." The central bank launched the eNaira in 2021, and it's basically been downhill since then. Initial adoption was stuck at just 0.5 percent. The central bank lowered the requirements for access and introduced discounts in response, but people still preferred cash over the CBDC. With adoption still struggling, Central Bank of Nigeria deputy governor Kingsley Obiora said that all the eNaira needs is a “a little push from the government.” That's when the central bank suddenly announced it was taking cash out of circulation. After lines turned to protests and then riots, the central bank described the eNaira as a "success" after adoption went from 0.5% to 6%. https://www.coindesk.com/opinion/2023/03/06/nigerians-rejection-of-their-cbdc-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-other-countries Even the IMF admit the CBDC has largely been a failure. In a 2023 study, the IMF found that 98.5 percent of the wallets issued have never been used. And that's to say nothing of all the complaints on the app stores. https://x.com/EconWithNick/status/1942230482995048751?s=20 The eNaira has largely fallen apart at this point. Speaking in Ghana a few weeks ago, one Central Bank of Nigeria official said that Nigerians were not interested in the CBDC, the central bank was not prepared to be a retail bank, and the market was already providing solutions. I've only just skimmed the surface, so be sure to check out the CBDC Tracker to learn more about what's happening in Africa, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home

After hearing the Bank Secrecy Act would be too expensive to comply with, Congress brought in "experts" to say how much it will cost. Congress: Would you agree that bankers exagerate the cost? The Expert: Oh, I have no idea.

It's day two of #ABC2025 so let's look at some of the pilot projects in Africa by digging into what's been happening in Mauritius, Tunisia, and Ghana. The Bank of Mauritius received assistance from the IMF to research CBDCs back in 2020. After 4 years of research, the central bank launched a pilot in 2024. Details, however, have been pretty limited. It only said one commercial bank was involved and more pilots would follow. The Banque Centrale de Tunisie had an early start in 2019 when rumors spread that it launched a CBDC, but the central bank quickly denied these claims. It did, however, launch a CBDC pilot in collaboration with the Banque de France in 2021 to test cross-border transactions. The Bank of Ghana also got its start in 2019. It ran a pilot in 2022 and planned to go live in 2023, but it delayed those plans due to the high inflation experienced at the time. The central bank continues to be active in the space, but the timeline is unclear. Tomorrow, I'll spotlight the only launched CBDC in Africa. However, if you can't wait... you can find out who it is in the CBDC Tracker. https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/