The global financial landscape is rapidly transforming with the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
The rise of CBDCs
As of late 2025, over 114 countries, covering 98% of global GDP, are actively exploring a digital form of their national currency. They are shifting focus from theory to real-world applications in retail payments and cross-border settlements.
The momentum is visible across stages. Early movers like the Bahamas, Nigeria, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe have fully launched retail CBDCs.
Meanwhile, major economies, including China with the e-CNY and India with the e₹, are running large-scale pilots.
On the contrary, the EU, ECB, and U.S. (through initiatives like Project Cedar) are focusing heavily on wholesale CBDCs for interbank settlement.
So now, with 16 G20 nations in development or pilot phases, CBDCs are becoming a core part of future payment systems.
These initiatives are driven by clear objectives – Enhancing payment efficiency, promoting financial inclusion, and preserving public access to public money in increasingly digital economies.
Regional progress varies widely
In this race, Asia-Pacific leads in scale, leveraging strong digital adoption in China and India.
On the other hand, Europe and North America are moving cautiously, prioritizing legal clarity and wholesale efficiency.
The ECB’s Digital Euro preparation and U.S efforts, such as Project Cedar, underscore a focus on wholesale solutions for interbank settlement.
In fact, seeing the rise in CBDCs, there is also a key G20 goal of improving slow, costly cross-border payments through interoperable wholesale CBDC systems.
Additionally, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is also leading efforts such as mBridge, now at the MVP stage, connecting four jurisdictions to streamline cross-border settlement.
Project Mariana has already tested automated market makers for exchanging CBDCs across borders.
That being said, CBDC development also has its fair share of challenges.
Central banks, for instance, face three major design challenges before mass launch – Privacy vs. Oversight, ensuring cash-like anonymity while preventing illicit finance; Financial Stability, mitigating the risk of bank deposit shifts (leading to discussions on safeguards like deposit caps); and Programmability, which raises sensitive questions about central bank control over money usage.
Beyond efficiency, a deeper geopolitical shift is unfolding
Projects like mBridge and the potential for shared digital ledgers signal a strategic effort to reduce reliance on the U.S dollar, bypass intermediaries, and promote a multi-polar currency system.
However, the revolution carries risks. Critics warn of the “all-seeing coin,” where programmable CBDCs could erode personal privacy.
Furthermore, real-world failures, such as Nigeria’s eNaira and El Salvador’s Bitcoin roll-out, show that technology alone cannot guarantee adoption or fix structural financial issues.
All this concludes to a point that today’s digital-money experiments are quietly determining the balance of economic power for decades to come.
Final Thoughts
- Early CBDC adopters include the Bahamas, Nigeria, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe, mainly with retail CBDCs.
- Large economies like China (e-CNY) and India (e₹) are running large-scale pilots, while the EU, ECB, and U.S focus on wholesale CBDCs.