Massad Says U.S. CBDC Work Continues Behind Closed Doors Despite Trump Ban

Former CFTC Chair Timothy Massad said U.S. officials are still exploring CBDC-style infrastructure behind closed doors, despite President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking federal agencies from developing or promoting a central bank digital currency.

Massad made the comments during CoinDesk’s Digital Money Summit in London, where he argued that a government-backed digital dollar or central bank-backed settlement asset remains difficult for the U.S. to avoid as tokenized finance expands. His comments point to a split between Washington’s public anti-CBDC stance and the technical work still happening around wholesale settlement, tokenized deposits and central bank money.

Trump’s January 2025 digital-assets order prohibits federal agencies from establishing, issuing or promoting CBDCs in the U.S. or abroad, unless required by law. It also orders any ongoing agency plans or initiatives tied to CBDC creation to be terminated.

That order effectively shuts the door on a retail digital dollar under the current White House. Massad’s point is narrower but still politically explosive: U.S. officials can oppose a consumer-facing CBDC while still studying the settlement infrastructure that would allow tokenized money to move through regulated financial rails.

Project Agorá Keeps The U.S. Inside Tokenized Settlement Tests

The main link is Project Agorá, a Bank for International Settlements initiative involving the New York Fed, the Bank of England, the Banque de France, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico and the Swiss National Bank. The project explores how tokenized commercial bank deposits and tokenized wholesale central bank money could operate on a shared programmable platform for cross-border payments.

The New York Fed’s role is limited to research and experimentation. That still keeps the U.S. inside a live international test of tokenized settlement rails, even while the Trump administration rejects a formal CBDC launch.

Project Agorá is not a retail digital-dollar rollout. It focuses on wholesale cross-border payments, where banks and central banks test whether tokenized deposits and central bank settlement assets can reduce friction in correspondent banking. The target is faster settlement, better transparency, automated compliance checks and stronger cross-border payment infrastructure without replacing the two-tier banking model.

That difference gives U.S. officials a narrow policy lane. Retail CBDCs remain politically toxic in Washington because critics see them as a surveillance risk and a threat to private banking. Wholesale tokenized settlement is easier to defend as infrastructure research, especially when other major economies are testing similar systems.

The Ban Does Not End The Global CBDC Race

The political fight is moving on two tracks. Congress has already pushed anti-CBDC legislation into the broader crypto debate, with the CBDC ban sitting alongside GENIUS and CLARITY as part of the wider fight over U.S. digital-asset rules. State-level resistance is also growing after South Carolina barred government entities from accepting, requiring or testing CBDCs while protecting self-custody and crypto payment neutrality.

At the same time, central banks outside the U.S. continue to develop digital-currency and tokenized-settlement systems. Europe is still advancing the digital euro, China already operates the digital yuan, and BIS-backed projects are testing how central bank money can settle tokenized claims across borders.

Massad’s warning lands inside that gap. A hard U.S. ban on a retail digital dollar may satisfy the administration’s privacy and anti-surveillance message, but tokenized markets still need a trusted settlement asset. If the U.S. does not help shape that infrastructure, other jurisdictions may define the standards for cross-border digital money.