What Happened
The global push toward central bank digital currencies continues to accelerate. According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, 1 134 countries, representing 98% of global GDP, are now in some stage of CBDC exploration, development, or deployment. Eleven nations have launched retail CBDCs. China’s e-CNY has been deployed domestically and tested internationally. The European Central Bank is advancing the digital euro.
In March 2025, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act 4 was reintroduced in the U.S. Senate, aiming to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail CBDC or maintaining individual accounts. Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act 5 — signed into law in July 2025 — created a federal framework for stablecoins, which some analysts view as a functional alternative that keeps issuance in the private sector.
Why It Matters
Not all CBDC designs are equally invasive. But the fundamental concern is structural. Academic research published in the Journal of Information Policy analyzed 46 studies and found that the one-tier operational model — where the central bank interacts directly with end users — “poses a substantial privacy challenge due to potential mass surveillance by central banks.”
BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens 2 stated plainly: the central bank will have “absolute control on the rules and regulations” governing CBDC use. In a CFA Institute survey, 63% of charterholders cited data privacy as one of their top concerns regarding CBDC introduction.
Here’s the part most people miss: extensive financial surveillance doesn’t require a CBDC. It’s already happening. FinCEN requires banks, payment processors, and digital asset platforms to file Suspicious Activity Reports — and the threshold for what constitutes “suspicious” is broad. The IRS expanded reporting requirements for third-party payment platforms. Starting in 2026, the 1099-DA regime requires crypto brokers to report transaction data directly to the IRS.
If you use a bank, a payment app, or a regulated crypto exchange, your financial activity is already being monitored, reported, and stored. A CBDC wouldn’t create surveillance where none exists. It would extend it and make it structurally inescapable for anyone using the national currency.
Bitcoin operates on a fundamentally different architecture: no central authority controls issuance, no institution has visibility into every transaction by default, and no government can freeze or reverse a Bitcoin transaction without the holder’s private keys.
The difference between a system where privacy is the default that requires effort to break, versus a system where surveillance is the default that requires permission to escape, is not a technical nuance. It’s a philosophical divide about the relationship between individuals and the state. The countries most aggressively deploying CBDCs are also the most aggressive in restricting alternatives.
What This Means for You
Understand what’s already being reported about you. Your bank files Currency Transaction Reports on deposits or withdrawals above $10,000. Payment platforms report to the IRS at lower thresholds. Crypto exchanges under the 1099-DA regime will report your cost basis and transaction data. Awareness of these systems is the first step toward informed financial decisions.
Don’t wait for a CBDC to think about monetary sovereignty. The policy trend, globally, is toward more visibility, more reporting, and more control over how digital money moves. If financial privacy and self-sovereignty matter to you, the tools to achieve them are available now. They may not always be.
Watch the legislation, not the headlines. What matters are the specific bills: the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, the GENIUS Act implementation details, and the 1099-DA reporting requirements. These documents are public. Read them.
What to Watch
The implementation details of the GENIUS Act through January 2027. Treasury and the relevant agencies are writing the actual rules now — the law provided the framework, but the regulations will determine how much surveillance is baked into the stablecoin system.
Also track whether the EU’s digital euro design incorporates meaningful privacy protections or defaults to full transaction visibility. Europe’s approach will set a template that other democracies will either adopt or react against.