Short answer: All three can be digital dollars or euros. The difference is who owes you the money. A CBDC is a direct claim on the central bank. A bank deposit, including a tokenized deposit, is a claim on a commercial bank, usually backed by deposit insurance up to a limit. A payment stablecoin is a claim on a private issuer, backed by a reserve of safe assets under rules such as the US GENIUS Act or the EU's MiCA. Same unit, same screen, different legal claim.
Three forms of digital money
- Central bank digital currency (CBDC): a digital form of central-bank money. A retail CBDC is for the public, like digital cash. A wholesale CBDC is for banks and financial institutions to settle with each other.
- Commercial bank deposits: the money most people already use digitally. Your bank owes it to you, and deposit insurance protects balances up to a limit (in the US, the FDIC says deposits are automatically insured to at least $250,000 at each FDIC-insured bank). Tokenized deposits are the same claim recorded on a blockchain. See /convergence/banks.
- Payment stablecoins: tokens issued by a private firm that aim to hold par and are redeemable from reserves. They're not deposits and not central-bank money. See /convergence/stablecoins.
Comparison table
| Property | Retail CBDC | Bank deposit | Tokenized deposit | Payment stablecoin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whose liability | Central bank | Commercial bank | Commercial bank | Private issuer |
| Credit risk to holder | Sovereign | Bank (insurance up to a limit) | Bank (insurance treatment depends on jurisdiction and structure; check before relying on it) | Issuer and reserve quality |
| Pays interest | Varies by design; the Commission's digital euro proposal says it should not bear interest | Can | Can | GENIUS Act Sec. 4(a)(11) bars issuers from paying holders interest or yield |
| Ledger | Central bank's choice (DLT optional) | Bank core systems | Blockchain (often permissioned) | Public or permissioned blockchain |
| Programmability | Limited by design | Low | High | High |
| Privacy | Policy choice; the digital euro proposal provides cash-like privacy for offline payments | Bank secrecy plus AML | Bank secrecy plus AML | Pseudonymous on-chain; issuer and provider KYC |
| Holding limits | Digital euro proposal lets the ECB set holding limits; the proposal itself sets no amount | None | None | None |
| Availability | Few live; most in pilot | Everywhere | Pilots and early deployments | Global, crypto-native |
| Key rules | Central bank law (e.g. proposed digital euro Regulation) | Banking law | Banking law | GENIUS Act (US), MiCA EMT (EU) |
For a board-level version covering cash, native crypto and more columns, see the forms of money decision table.
Retail vs wholesale CBDC
Retail CBDCs aim to keep public access to central-bank money as cash use falls. Wholesale CBDCs aim to settle tokenized assets and cross-border payments in central-bank money. Wholesale designs fit existing bank-to-central-bank relationships and raise fewer of the privacy and bank-funding questions that retail designs do.
CBDC status tracker
| Jurisdiction | Project | Stage | Notes (with dates) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Euro area | Digital euro | Preparation; legislation pending | ECB aims to be ready for possible first issuance during 2029 if the Regulation is adopted in 2026. 12-month pilot from H2 2027 (ECB, retrieved Oct 11, 2026) |
| United States | Retail CBDC | Barred by executive order | Executive Order 14178 (Jan 23, 2025) says that, except as required by law, agencies are prohibited from any action to establish, issue or promote CBDCs (Sec. 5). FedNow, live since Jul 20, 2023, is instant payments for banks, not a CBDC |
| China | e-CNY | Pilot | The PBOC reports pilots in selected areas of 15 provinces and municipalities. The latest PBOC usage figures we found in English are dated Aug 31, 2022, so we don't quote them |
| India | Digital Rupee (e₹) | Retail and wholesale pilots | RBI wholesale pilot began Nov 1, 2022; retail pilot began Dec 1, 2022 |
| United Kingdom | Digital pound | Design phase | No decision to introduce one. The BoE published a design-phase update in Oct 2025 and says a joint BoE–HM Treasury assessment comes ahead of a decision on next steps in 2026 (BoE page, read Oct 17, 2026) |
Digital euro: what's scheduled
The ECB says it aims to be ready for a possible first issuance during 2029, assuming the digital euro Regulation is adopted in 2026. It will only decide whether to issue once the Regulation is adopted. Before that it plans a 12-month pilot starting in the second half of 2027 to test a beta version in real situations such as in-shop and person-to-person payments. Participants are to include 36 euro-area payment service providers, selected merchants, and staff of the ECB and 19 national central banks. A call for e-commerce and mobile-commerce merchants is open until 27 October 2026 (ECB pilot page, retrieved Oct 11, 2026).
Wholesale and mBridge
Project mBridge, started by the BIS Innovation Hub and partner central banks, aims at instant cross-border payments in central-bank money on a shared ledger. Per the BIS, mBridge reached the minimum viable product stage in mid-2024, and in October 2024 the BIS announced it was handing the project over to the partners. The BIS now lists the project as concluded (BIS project page). In the euro area, the Eurosystem runs a dual-track wholesale strategy. Pontes aims to let euro wholesale transactions on market DLT platforms settle in central bank money. Appia explores a longer-term tokenised financial ecosystem (ECB tokenisation and DLT page).
What it means for crypto firms
- Stablecoins and CBDCs can coexist. The euro area is preparing a digital euro while supervising euro and dollar stablecoins under MiCA (/regulation/eu-mica).
- The US has chosen private rails. With federal CBDC work barred by Executive Order 14178 and the GENIUS Act enacted (effective by Jan 18, 2027 at the latest), US digital-dollar innovation runs through regulated stablecoins and bank tokens.
- Banks are answering with tokenized deposits, which keep deposit funding on-chain.
- Interoperability is the real product question: wallets, merchants and treasuries may need to handle all three.