Former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad: Despite Trump's public opposition, the U.S. is actively researching CBDC

BlockBeats News, May 20th - At the 2026 Digital Currency Summit held in London, former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Timothy Massad stated that despite President Trump's strong opposition to central bank digital currencies or government-backed stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar before taking office, global market dynamics have made it an inevitable trend.

Massad pointed out that although the CBDC topic is extremely sensitive in Washington, related discussions are happening behind closed doors. He emphasized that the U.S. is a participant in the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) key project "Agora Initiative," which brings together seven central banks. Despite Washington's public stance against it, work behind closed doors is still advancing. He added that no Federal Reserve governor openly discusses wholesale or retail CBDCs, but that does not mean the U.S. is not researching how to create one.

Mark Gould, Head of the Federal Reserve's Payment Business, refused to discuss central bank stablecoins at the same event, stating, "This is currently not within our scope of responsibilities." However, when asked if a government-backed digital dollar falls under the Fed's purview, he gave an affirmative answer but indicated that it is not currently under consideration.

In March 2024, nine months before Trump's re-inauguration, he vowed to ban the creation of CBDCs. In March of this year, a proposal to prohibit the issuance of a digital dollar by the Federal Reserve received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate with 89 votes to 10, but it is currently part of a housing bill and may face obstacles in the House of Representatives.

Massad believes that central banks' experiments with stablecoins worldwide are quietly forcing the U.S. to establish a government-backed on-chain fund settlement track to avoid falling behind Europe. He stated after the meeting that although the Trump administration publicly stated that formal retail CBDCs are not under consideration, the evolution of tokenized finance will compel the introduction of government-backed alternative solutions.