A housing bill passed Thursday (March 12) by the U.S. Senate includes a provision that would ban the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) until at least the end of 2030, CoinDesk reported Thursday.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act places limits on the number of homes that private equity firms and other large investors can own. It also includes an unrelated provision that would ban the Fed from issuing CBDCs, according to the report.
The Senate approved the bill in a bipartisan, 89-10 vote. However, the bill face obstacles, including signals from House lawmakers that they force a rewrite of the legislation, and President Donald Trump’s vow that he won’t sign any bill into law until Congress passes legislation that would require people to produce identification before voting, per the report.
Digital asset and blockchain-based technologies advocacy group The Digital Chamber posted a statement from its CEO Cody Carbone in a Thursday post on X, saying that the organization applauded the Senate’s passage of the bill with the anti-CBDC provision.
“Financial privacy is a cornerstone of American freedom, and any decision to authorize a Central Bank Digital Currency must remain with Congress and the American people,” Carbone said. “We appreciate the Senate reinforcing that digital innovation in the United States should be led by the private sector while protecting individual liberty.”
Two other digital asset-focused groups expressed their support for the provision in a press release issued Tuesday (March 10) by the Senate Banking Committee, before the vote was held.
Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger said: “A government-issued CBDC would threaten core American values — financial privacy, civil liberties and limits on state power — by giving the government unprecedented insight into (and potential leverage over) everyday transactions.”
The Crypto Council for Innovation said in the release: “Legislative certainty on this subject will help foster the private-sector innovation driving U.S. leadership in digital assets while protecting Americans’ privacy.”
PYMNTS reported in July 2025 that attempts to ban a U.S. CBDC were excluded from the GENIUS Act, the country’s first-ever piece of crypto legislation, and were later linked to other legislation.
