Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has threatened to ban central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) if he makes it to the White House in 2024.
“Done, dead, not happening in this country,” said DeSantis at a campaign stop in Iowa. “If I am the president, on day one, we will nix central bank digital currency.”
This is not the first time that DeSantis has come out swinging against central bank digital currencies.
In March of this year, DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting the use of digital currencies as money within the State of Florida.
Central banks around the world, including in the U.S. and Canada, have been studying the feasibility of issuing and regulating a digital currency, with some analysts saying such a move is inevitable given the growth in popularity of cryptocurrencies.
Regarding crypto, DeSantis has been more supportive, calling its use a question of civil liberties and describing Bitcoin (BTC), the largest digital token by market capitalization, a “threat to the current regime.”
Central bank digital currencies are a tokenized form of a country’s fiat currency that would be issued and controlled by the government.
Whether to develop a central bank digital currency is becoming a wedge issue in the race for the White House. Conservative Republicans, for the most part, oppose a digital currency, while more left leaning Democrats have largely been silent on the subject.
Cryptocurrencies have enjoyed a strong rally this year, with the price of Bitcoin up 80% since January and currently trading right around $30,000 U.S.
