# US CBDC Projects In Memoriam

- Author: [Victoria Wells](https://ape.law/victoria-wells)
- Published: 2025-02-03

[Regulation & Compliance](https://ape.law/blog/category/regulation-compliance)

Trump's Executive Order terminates US CBDC projects. Explore OpenCBDC, Project Cedar, Project Agorá and other initiatives affected by the 2025 ban.

[![Portrait of Victoria Wells](https://ape.law/brand/victoria-wells-square.png) By Victoria Wells](https://ape.law/blog/authors/victoria-wells)

Published 3 February 2025 · 3 min read

![Graphic reading ‘CBDCs Killed by Trump Order’ with a gravestone icon.](https://ape.law/assets/blog/legacy/0559df3b3a747a1f2ac0a1813be193f101bda021a85ddf5c978942de2931bc14.webp)

Trump’s Executive Order [Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/strengthening-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology/) published 23 January 2025 terminates US agencies’ establishment, issue or promotion of CBDC initiatives. Prior to the Order, various US agencies were involved in CBDC initiatives, collaborating with various financial institutions and technology partners. Here is a list of CBDC projects US public and private interests were involved in that were active in 2024. Whether these projects will be shuttered or will relocate to more sympathetic locations, time will tell.

1. **OpenCBDC Initiative**: A collaboration between the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Digital Currency Initiative, the OpenCBDC initiative aims to research and develop a hypothetical CBDC, resulting in the release of OpenCBDC-tx, a research codebase. By 2024, the OpenCBDC Initiative had released prototypes and research findings, contributing to the broader understanding of CBDC design and implementation. The project has not formally responded to, or announced its plans in light of the Order.
2. \*\*Project Cedar: \*\*Led by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Centre (**NYIC**), Project Cedar is a multiphase research effort evaluating the potential applications of DLT to improve the efficiency of wholesale cross-border payments. In 2023 completed a collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (**MAS**) to demonstrate the potential of DLT to enhance cross-border multi-currency payments and settlements. By 2024, the project had progressed to further phases, continuing its exploration of DLT applications in wholesale payments. The project has not formally responded to, or announced its plans in light of the Order.
3. **Project Agorá**: Launched in April 2024, Project Agorá is a cross-border wholesale CBDC project that involves the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and six other major central banks (representing Japan, Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, England, France and Eurosystem interests). Private sector interests were invited to join the project also. The initiative explores the feasibility of using tokenized commercial and central bank money for international transactions among financial institutions. The design phase began in September 2024. The project has not formally responded to, or announced its plans in light of the Order.
4. **Regulated Liability Network (RLN) Pilot**: The RLN Pilot was established by the NYIC to test the feasibility of a regulated liability network using DLT for settling liabilities of regulated financial institutions. Throughout 2024, the RLN Pilot advanced through various phases, including experimentation and hackathons, to test and refine the RLN concept. In September 2024, UK Finance published the final reports of the UK RLN Experimentation Phase, and a subsequent hackathon was conducted in November 2024 to explore innovative use cases. The project has not formally responded to, or announced its plans in light of the Order.
5. **Digital Dollar Project**: Initiated in 2020 by the Digital Dollar Foundation in partnership with Accenture, the Digital Dollar Project (**DDP**) remained active in 2024, expanding its sandbox program, designed to facilitate experimentation and gather data on CBDC implementations. Although not directly affiliated with US agencies, it worked in collaboration with various stakeholders to pilot CBDC use cases. The project has not formally responded to, or announced its plans in light of the Order.

More information on global CBDC initiatives can be sourced on [this CBDC tracker](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/).

**General information only**

This article is general education and does not constitute personal legal, tax, financial, investment or regulatory advice. Rules, programmes and regulatory positions can change. Obtain advice from appropriately qualified professionals who understand your facts and the relevant jurisdictions before acting.

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![Portrait of Victoria Wells](https://ape.law/brand/victoria-wells-square.png)

About the author

## Victoria Wells

Principal & Co-Founder

Victoria leads Ape Law’s Web3 legal practice across licensing, tokenization and regulation. She is also a founding partner of Project Get Out.

[View profile and articles](https://ape.law/blog/authors/victoria-wells)

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