Congress sends housing bill with Fed CBDC ban through 2030 to Trump
The measure also carves out permissionless, private dollar stablecoins and awaits an expected Wednesday signature.
Congress has sent the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to President Donald Trump after lopsided votes in both chambers, pairing a housing affordability package with a Federal Reserve CBDC issuance ban. The bill explicitly preserves room for “open, permissionless and private” dollar stablecoins, with Trump expected to sign it on Wednesday.
Key Takeaways
- The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 358-32 after the Senate cleared it 85-5, sending the bill to President Donald Trump.
- The legislation bars the Federal Reserve from directly or indirectly issuing a CBDC, or a “substantially similar” digital asset, until the clause sunsets on Dec. 31, 2030.
- A carve-out permits “dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless and private,” preserving a lane for private stablecoins.
- Trump has signaled support and is expected to sign the bill into law on Wednesday, though enactment is not yet confirmed.
Congress Sends Housing Bill With Fed CBDC Ban to Trump
The US House approved the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in a 358-32 vote on Tuesday, a day after the Senate passed the same package 85-5. The bill now sits with President Donald Trump, who has signaled support and is expected to sign it into law on Wednesday.
The headline for crypto markets is not the housing policy payload. It is the fact that a Federal Reserve CBDC restriction has been stapled to a must-pass affordability bill and cleared with margins that usually signal leadership alignment, not a narrow ideological win. Those vote totals matter because they reduce the odds that the CBDC language gets treated as a temporary messaging amendment.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott framed the package as a housing win and pushed for final enactment, saying, “Today, Congress delivered a major win for families working toward the American Dream,” and “I look forward to President Trump signing it into law.”
The Exact CBDC Prohibition—and the Dec. 31, 2030 Sunset
The bill’s operative constraint is aimed directly at the central bank. It states the Federal Reserve may not, directly or indirectly, “issue or create a central bank digital currency or any digital asset that is substantially similar to a central bank digital currency,” with the clause expiring on Dec. 31, 2030.
Two phrases do the work for traders parsing policy risk. “Directly or indirectly” broadens the scope beyond a simple Fed-issued token, and “substantially similar” is a catch-all that can chill adjacent designs depending on how it is interpreted. The sunset date also matters. It creates a defined window where a US CBDC is politically boxed out, but it is not a permanent prohibition.
The language revives elements of Rep. Tom Emmer’s Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, introduced in June 2025 and passed by the House a month later, but never advanced in the Senate. This time, the Senate vote suggests the center of gravity has shifted. The policy stance looks more durable than prior standalone anti-CBDC pushes that died on scheduling.
Stablecoin Carve-Out Preserves Private Dollar Tokens
The bill does not treat all digital dollars the same. It includes a carve-out for crypto stablecoins, allowing “dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless and private.”
That carve-out is a tell. The structure is designed to block a government-issued digital dollar while leaving room for private, dollar-denominated crypto rails to operate. For stablecoin and DeFi participants, the practical implication is a clearer policy split: the target is a Fed CBDC, not permissionless private tokens that function as dollar proxies.
Crypto advocates have opposed CBDCs as centrally controlled assets that repurpose decentralized-asset technology. The bill’s text aligns with that framing by restricting the issuer, not the broader concept of tokenized dollars.
Signing Risk, Implementation Questions, and the Next Crypto Bills on Deck
The near-term hinge is simple: the restriction is not effective until Trump signs. Confirmation of the Wednesday signature and the final enacted text will set the clock on the Dec. 31, 2030 window.
After enactment, the next question is how the Federal Reserve interprets “directly or indirectly” and “substantially similar.” The bill excerpt does not spell out implementation mechanics, leaving room for guidance that could either narrow the ban to a specific CBDC architecture or broaden it to cover Fed-adjacent experiments.
With the housing bill off the agenda, lawmakers are expected to pivot to other priorities ahead of the August recess and November midterm elections. The Senate’s crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, is positioned as a key next fight. Galaxy Digital earlier in June lowered its estimate of the Senate passing the CLARITY Act before year-end to a 60% chance as the calendar tightens, and any updated scheduling signals will matter as the window compresses.
A Clear Policy Split Between Fed Money and Private Stablecoins
I treat this as a market-structure headline, not a price catalyst. The vote margins are the signal. A 358-32 House vote and an 85-5 Senate vote suggest the anti-CBDC posture has moved from partisan talking point to a broadly bankable constraint, at least through the 2030 sunset.
The threshold that matters is enactment plus interpretation. If Trump signs and the Fed reads “directly or indirectly” and “substantially similar” aggressively, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven, because it hard-limits the government’s digital-dollar lane while explicitly leaving private stablecoin rails intact through the carve-out.
