Former CFTC Chair Says US Is Reviewing CBDC Infrastructure Behind the Scenes

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Timothy Massad said the US government is still examining the possible adoption of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.

Massad made the remarks in an interview with CoinDesk at the Digital Money Summit 2026 in London on May 19. The US is publicly hostile to a CBDC, but is in fact reviewing related infrastructure, he said. Trump strongly opposed a CBDC before taking office, Massad added, but adoption is ultimately unavoidable given global market dynamics.

Massad pointed to Project Agora, a Bank for International Settlements initiative. The project is a payments experiment based on tokenized deposits and central bank money involving the central banks of seven major economies, including the US. He said the US is participating in Project Agora. A central bank governor's decision not to publicly mention wholesale or retail CBDCs does not mean related options are not being reviewed, he said.

The Federal Reserve drew a line on the issue. Mark Gould, the Fed's chief payments executive, said at the event that a CBDC is not currently within the Fed's remit. He acknowledged, however, that a government-backed digital dollar could fall under the central bank's jurisdiction if introduced.

Trump said during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would ban the issuance of a CBDC. A bill that would prohibit the Fed from issuing a CBDC also cleared the US Senate in March.