What is a CBDC (central bank digital currency)?

A central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a digital form of a nation’s official money — a direct liability of its central bank, just like physical cash. It is not a cryptocurrency: it is centralised, government-issued, and pegged 1:1 to the national currency.

CBDC vs crypto vs stablecoins

• Cryptocurrency (e.g. Bitcoin) — decentralised, no issuer, price floats.
• Stablecoin — privately issued, value referenced to an asset like the US dollar. See what is a stablecoin.
• CBDC — issued by the central bank itself.

Programme stages

This map tracks where each country’s CBDC sits on a pipeline: research → development → pilot → launched (and occasionally cancelled). Most large economies are at the pilot or research stage; very few have fully launched.

The CBDC dimension is the most globally complete on this map (130+ countries), drawn from cbdctracker.org. Switch to the CBDC layer on the map, or open a country such as China or the United States to see its current stage and source. Compare programmes side-by-side with the compare tool.

Data basis: CBDC programme status on this map is tracked from cbdctracker.org; design details come from each issuing central bank.