Whether the U.S. participates or not, the rest of the world is exploring and deploying CBDCs. According to the Atlantic Council, 114 countries, representing more than 95% of global gross domestic product, are exploring CBDCs. Actively engaged in this digital gold rush are 19 of the G-20 countries, including India, Japan, Russia and South Korea, each of which has made significant recent progress. The European Central Bank is expected to introduce a prototype for a “digital euro” by the end of 2023, becoming more widely available by 2025. The central banks of some of the freest societies on Earth – from Sweden to Japan and England – are exploring their own CBDCs.
