Number of countries in the world developing CBDC 2017-2023

By the end of 2023, more than 100 countries across the world were involved in the creation of their own CBDC - although the majority was still researching. This is according to a tracker that aims to map out the development status of such central bank digital currencies, or digital variants of FX such as the U.S. dollar or euro and which may rely on blockchain technology. CBDC became an increasingly trending topic since 2021, after cryptocurrencies and stablecoins - digital coins built on the blockchain - grabbed news headlines. An important difference between crypto and CBDC, however, is that the first is decentralized. Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are issued by private hands or companies, sometimes as a protest against monetary authorities. CBDC, on the other hand, come from monetary authorities and are meant to be a digital variant of already existing FX. From the 105 countries that were involved with such digital currencies, only Nigeria, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) had a "live" CBDC as of the end of 2022. The European Union and the United States are also exploring such options, but the latter started its research in November 2022. The United Kingdom aims for 2025 or 2026 for their "digital pound".