No bill creating a U.S. government digital dollar has passed. The digital-currency law Congress did pass in 2025, the GENIUS Act, regulates privately issued stablecoins rather than creating a government-run currency, and a separate executive order signed in January 2025 actively prohibits federal agencies from developing a central bank digital dollar. If you came here thinking the United States just launched its own digital currency, the opposite is closer to the truth.
Two Different Things People Call a “Digital Dollar”
The confusion behind this question is almost always about which kind of digital dollar is being discussed. A central bank digital currency, or CBDC, would be issued directly by the Federal Reserve and would be a liability of the U.S. government, the same status a paper dollar bill has today. A stablecoin is something else entirely: a digital token issued by a private company that promises to back each unit with reserves such as Treasury bills or cash deposits. Stablecoins already exist and trade on cryptocurrency exchanges. They are not legal tender, and no government stands behind them.
When people ask whether a digital dollar bill passed, they usually mean the first. The law that actually passed addresses the second.
The GENIUS Act: The Stablecoin Law That Passed in 2025
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act, was signed on July 18, 2025 as Public Law 119-27. It is the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the United States.1Congress.gov. S.1582 – GENIUS Act – Text
The act does not create a government digital dollar. It sets rules for the private companies that issue dollar-backed digital tokens. Its main provisions:
- Only “permitted payment stablecoin issuers” formed in the United States can legally issue stablecoins. These must be subsidiaries of insured banks, federal-qualified issuers, or state-qualified issuers.
- Issuers must publish monthly reports showing outstanding stablecoins and the composition and custody of their reserves.
- Issuers cannot pay holders interest or yield simply for holding the tokens, keeping stablecoins separate from savings and securities products.
- Issuers cannot market a stablecoin in any way that would make a reasonable person think it is legal tender, issued by the government, or backed by government guarantees.
- Issuers are subject to the same federal anti-money-laundering, sanctions, and customer-identification rules as traditional financial institutions.
The law takes full effect either 18 months after signing or 120 days after regulators issue final implementing rules, whichever comes first.1Congress.gov. S.1582 – GENIUS Act – Text Starting July 18, 2028, digital asset exchanges will be prohibited from offering any stablecoin to U.S. customers unless the issuer meets GENIUS Act requirements.2Federal Register. GENIUS Act Implementation The FDIC and other federal agencies have already begun issuing proposed rules to implement the reserve and operational requirements.3Federal Register. GENIUS Act Requirements and Standards for FDIC-Supervised Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuers
So if a headline says a “digital dollar bill” passed, this is the bill. It regulates private tokens. It does not create a Federal Reserve digital dollar.
Executive Order 14178: A Federal Ban on a Government Digital Dollar
On January 23, 2025, Executive Order 14178 established a blanket prohibition on government-issued digital currency. The order states that all federal agencies are “prohibited from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs within the jurisdiction of the United States or abroad,” and it required the immediate termination of “any ongoing plans or initiatives at any agency related to the creation of a CBDC.”4The White House. Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology
The same order revoked Executive Order 14067, a 2022 directive that had told agencies to research potential benefits of a CBDC. It also promotes dollar-backed private stablecoins as the preferred path for keeping the U.S. dollar dominant in digital commerce.4The White House. Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology
An executive order binds the executive branch, but it can be reversed by a future president. That is why Congress has kept working on a statute.
The CBDC Ban Bill: What Happened, and Where It Stands
H.R. 5403, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, passed the House on May 23, 2024. The Senate received it on June 3, 2024 and referred it to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. No Senate vote ever took place.5Congress.gov. H.R. 5403 – CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act When the 118th Congress ended in January 2025, the bill died. Legislation that does not clear both chambers within the same two-year Congress has to start over.
A successor bill, H.R. 1919, was introduced in the 119th Congress (2025–2026) under the name Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.6Congress.gov. Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act – 119th Congress It would write the executive order’s ban into permanent law. As of mid-2026, it has not been signed.
The provisions in the current bill go beyond a straight ban on issuance. They would prohibit the Federal Reserve from offering accounts, products, or services directly to individuals, blocking the central bank from acting as a retail bank.7Congress.gov. H.R. 5403 – CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act – TextH.R. 5403 – CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act and would bar the Fed from using a digital currency to implement monetary policy, meaning the government could not adjust individual balances to influence spending or interest rates.
The bill defines “central bank digital currency” as a digital form of U.S. currency that is a direct liability of the Federal Reserve.8Congress.gov. H.R. 5403 – CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act – Text That definition keeps the ban targeted at government-issued currency and leaves private stablecoins outside its scope.
Why the Fed Cannot Just Launch a Digital Dollar
Even setting aside the executive order and the pending bill, the Federal Reserve does not have unilateral authority to create a digital currency. The Fed’s power to issue currency comes from Section 16 of the Federal Reserve Act, codified at 12 U.S.C. § 411. That section authorizes “Federal reserve notes,” describes their physical issuance, sets the collateral required to back them (Treasury securities, gold certificates, or similar assets), and establishes their status as obligations of the United States.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 411 – Issuance to Reserve Banks; Nature of Obligation; Redemption A digital currency does not fit that framework.
The Fed’s own position is that it “has made no decisions on whether to pursue or implement a central bank digital currency” and would not proceed “without clear support from the executive branch and from Congress, ideally in the form of a specific authorizing law.”10Federal Reserve Board. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Neither of those exists. The executive branch has taken the opposite position, and Congress has not passed authorizing legislation.
What Would Have to Change
For a U.S. government digital dollar to exist, three things would need to happen. Congress would have to pass a law specifically authorizing the Federal Reserve to issue one, since the current statutory framework covers only physical Federal Reserve notes. A sitting president would have to rescind or replace Executive Order 14178, which right now forbids any federal agency from doing preparatory work. And the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, if it becomes law before then, would have to be repealed or amended, because it would independently prohibit issuance regardless of what the executive branch wanted.
None of that is on the near horizon. The direction of federal policy in 2025 and 2026 has been to lock private stablecoins into a regulated framework under the GENIUS Act while closing off the option of a government-issued digital dollar. That is the answer to the question people are usually asking: a digital-dollar law passed, but it is not the kind of digital dollar most searchers have in mind.