The North Carolina House of Representatives has unanimously approved legislation that forbids the use of CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies, to make payments to the U.S. state.
In a vote on May 3, 118 members of the state’s legislative body approved House Bill 690; only two representatives were absent, and no one opposed it. The most recent iteration of the law sought to forbid citizens from making any payments to the state using CBDCs and to prevent the Federal Reserve from using North Carolina as a prospective test site for its own CBDC pilot program.
The legislative push against CBDCs seems to be becoming more politically relevant ahead of the 2024 elections in the United States. In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — expected by many to throw his hat into the ring for the U.S. presidential race — called for a CBDC ban in the country, claiming the technology was all about “surveilling Americans and controlling behavior of Americans.”
