@HRF asked me to share one of my favorite freedom tech projects. Here's what I had to say about @vexl 😎 While I was limited to just one, I also have to give shout-outs to Skot building Bitaxe, @calle building Cashu, and many more. The policy front may be depressing at times, but the people building solutions on the ground give me hope. See what everyone else on the HRF Freedom Tech Team had to say here.

Human Rights Foundation

Top 15 Freedom Tech Projects of 2025

Looking back on 2025, financial and digital repression under authoritarian regimes continued to grow. But so did the innovation pushing back agains...

I guess there are no days off. The latest in ECB CBDC marketing is a Christmas post from president Christine Lagarde. To be honest, I would have preferred coal, but here we are... so let me put down the eggnog and break down what's happening here. As she noted, the EU Governing Council has given the green light for the digital euro (the ECB's CBDC). In short, the Council said that the digital euro should work both online and offline, have holding limits, allow a "high degree of privacy" while still being AML/KYC compliant, and be free for consumers to use. This green light from the council does not mean, however, that the digital euro will be launched. Now it's up to the European Parliament to weigh in. Sadly, though, this process might appear democratic from the outside, but it's really just a formality. It's unlikely that Parliament will alter the course. As @Efrat Fenigson noted on X, the ECB is just waiting for the Parliament's rubber stamp to move forward. As CBDC marketing ramps up, it's important to be vigiliant (even on holidays). As I've noted repeatedly, the ECB's marketing campaign borders on false advertising when it comes to claims about competition and freedom. https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-isnt-about-freedom 2026 is going to be an eventful year on the CBDC front. And as always, you can find out everything you need to know in the @HRF CBDC Tracker.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

If you want to give yourself a gift this Christmas, follow @PUBKEY and @vexl 😎. Hands down the best organization accounts in the game if financial freedom banter is your thing. And if it isn’t, it should be… so follow them anyway.

Ironically, "CBDCs do not serve a purpose" is what I've been saying for years.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but saying "anyone who opposes the digital euro" is effectively an enemy of the state does not exactly inspire confidence that the CBDC won't be abused.

Some good news on the CBDC front! Norway has joined the growing list of countries saying no to CBDC.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

After reading more than 300 pages of congressional transcripts from 1968-1970, I finally found the first instance in which someone said the Bank Secrecy Act would harm financial privacy. Clifford Sommer (American Bankers Association) urged Congress to reconsider what it was doing. Not a single witness before him (albeit, all government officials) seemed to be concerned about the Fourth Amendment or people's privacy.

The New York Times points to the absence of interest payments on stablecoins as a negative. Yet, what it doesn't point out here is that it was _Congress_ that prohibited stablecoins from doing that.

Congratulations to @Ayelen, @ZacG, @ck, @gladstein, and the whole @HRF team on 100 editions of the Financial Freedom Report. If you're not signed up, this is one of the few newsletters I read from top to bottom.

Human Rights Foundation

Financial Freedom Reports

HRF’s Financial Freedom Report is a weekly newsletter that exposes how authoritarian regimes weaponize money—and how Bitcoin and other freedom ...

Finally, on the last day of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, I've saved the worst CBDC experience in Africa for last: Nigeria. In the words of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the CBDC experience has not been a "rosy story." The central bank launched the eNaira in 2021, and it's basically been downhill since then. Initial adoption was stuck at just 0.5 percent. The central bank lowered the requirements for access and introduced discounts in response, but people still preferred cash over the CBDC. With adoption still struggling, Central Bank of Nigeria deputy governor Kingsley Obiora said that all the eNaira needs is a “a little push from the government.” That's when the central bank suddenly announced it was taking cash out of circulation. After lines turned to protests and then riots, the central bank described the eNaira as a "success" after adoption went from 0.5% to 6%.

Nigerians’ Rejection of Their CBDC Is a Cautionary Tale for Other Countries

Nigerians are protesting their country's CBDC and demanding renewed access to paper money, despite government incentives to use the digital currency.

Even the IMF admit the CBDC has largely been a failure. In a 2023 study, the IMF found that 98.5 percent of the wallets issued have never been used. And that's to say nothing of all the complaints on the app stores.

X (formerly Twitter)

Nick Anthony (@EconWithNick) on X

Just look at the state of the negative reviews on the wallet app for Nigeria's CBDC...

The eNaira has largely fallen apart at this point. Speaking in Ghana a few weeks ago, one Central Bank of Nigeria official said that Nigerians were not interested in the CBDC, the central bank was not prepared to be a retail bank, and the market was already providing solutions. I've only just skimmed the surface, so be sure to check out the @HRF CBDC Tracker to learn more about what's happening in Africa, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

After hearing the Bank Secrecy Act would be too expensive to comply with, Congress brought in "experts" to say how much it will cost. Congress: Would you agree that bankers exagerate the cost? The Expert: Oh, I have no idea.

It's day two of #ABC2025 so let's look at some of the pilot projects in Africa by digging into what's been happening in Mauritius, Tunisia, and Ghana. The Bank of Mauritius received assistance from the IMF to research CBDCs back in 2020. After 4 years of research, the central bank launched a pilot in 2024. Details, however, have been pretty limited. It only said one commercial bank was involved and more pilots would follow. The Banque Centrale de Tunisie had an early start in 2019 when rumors spread that it launched a CBDC, but the central bank quickly denied these claims. It did, however, launch a CBDC pilot in collaboration with the Banque de France in 2021 to test cross-border transactions. The Bank of Ghana also got its start in 2019. It ran a pilot in 2022 and planned to go live in 2023, but it delayed those plans due to the high inflation experienced at the time. The central bank continues to be active in the space, but the timeline is unclear. Tomorrow, I'll spotlight the only launched CBDC in Africa. However, if you can't wait... you can find out who it is in the @HRF CBDC Tracker.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

I couldn't make it to #ABC2025, but I'm there in spirit. So for anyone else stuck at home, let's look at some of the African countries in the @HRF CBDC Tracker that are researching CBDCs: Botswana, Namibia, and Kenya. The Bank of Botswana kicked off its CBDC exploration in 2021. However, a central bank official confirmed this summer that they are still "at an early stage of exploration." The Bank of Namibia began its research in 2020 and eventually received assistance from the IMF on at least three different occasions. However, in 2024, the IMF “did not find a strong case for issuing a [retail CBDC] at the moment." The Central Bank of Kenya had a bit of a late start in 2022, but it has repeatedly found that CBDCs are a solution in search of a problem. The central bank said many of Kenya's problems "cannot be solved with CBDCs" and that launching a CBDC is not "a compelling priority." Curious to learn more? You can find more information in the HRF CBDC Tracker. And tomorrow, I'll spotlight the pilot projects.

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

If you run or work in financial services (banking, bitcoin, or anything else) in the Eurozone, dm me! I'm working on a follow-up to my piece calling out the ECB's "freedom money" campaign, and the perspective on the ground would be very helpful here.

Did you know Peru has 7.9 million sols ($2.36 million) in CBDC in circulation?

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

Something to be thankful for: the South African Reserve Bank has officially announced "that while a retail CBDC is technically feasible ... there is no compelling immediate need for its implementation." More details here:

CBDC Tracker

A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar whereas, in Nigeria, the...

In a moment of reflection, Central Bank of Nigeria official Musa Itopa Jimoha admit that the Nigerian CBDC experience had not been a "rosy story." Nigerians were not interested in the eNaira because the market was already providing solutions. He warned other central banks not to issue a CBDC unless there is a real problem that it will actually solve. Interestingly, he also advised creating a separate legal entity to handle the CBDC so that operations are not directly under the central bank. cbdctracker.hrf.org

If the ECB were concerned about the freedom to choose, it would have been campaigning for decades to remove financial restrictions and let new options flourish. Instead, what it’s really after is control. https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-isnt-about-freedom

The ECB planning to force Apple to crack open its secure element is really all you need to know when it comes to whether you should trust the digital euro.

The ECB has picked up a new buzzword for its digital euro campaign: “freedom.” But don't be fooled, CBDCs are about control, not freedom. https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-isnt-about-freedom