Central Bank Digital Currency, or shortly CBDC, is a digital form of fiat money.

Such currencies have a lot in common with digital assets like Bitcoin.

Yet, they have some central authority’s support and therefore are fully legalized.

The benefits that CBDCs have in comparison with traditional fiat are aplenty.

Just like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, CBDCs feature instant cross-border transactions at negligible fees, full transparency, accessibility, and financial inclusion for unbanked citizens.

However, the rigidness of governmental structures makes the process of their adoption pretty slow.

At the time of writing, the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker shows only a small handful of countries that have officially launched their own digital currencies.

Alas, the progress is so slow.

But still, the overall improvement is obvious as central banks of many other regions consider implementing this new technology, too.

Let’s check the CBDC tracker to study the current status of the most viable projects.

Retail vs Wholesale CBDC

An important aspect to consider when exploring CBDCs is who is their primary audience.

At this, CBDCs can be categorized into two broad types:

Retail CBDCs

These are digital assets backed by governments and used primarily by businesses and their customers for daily transactions.

Such assets eliminate the risk inherent to private digital currencies that can stop functioning when their issuers go out of business.

In addition, retail CBDCs may be token-based or account-based.

The first ones are accessible via private and public keys, just like other cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH.

Account-based CBDCs, in turn, require users to pass full digital verification.

Wholesale CBDCs

The role that these assets play is similar to traditional reserves of a central bank.

Various institutions get permission to deposit their funds in central banks.

The last ones, in turn, may use those funds for their own goals and thus influence lending rates.

Unlike retail CBDCs, these ones are primarily used for large-scale transactions between institutions.

Wholesale and retail CBDC development has shifted considerably since 2022. The CBDC Registry now tracks 34 programs with official metrics, split across live, pilot, sandbox, research, and planned stages. Wholesale experiments have gained traction through multi-country bridge projects rather than standalone national programs, with initiatives like mBridge and Project Guardian specifically targeting cross-border settlement between central banks.

CBDC Tracker Overview

The authorities of many countries are actively researching and developing their own CBDCs.

The Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker now covers 130+ countries and regions at varying stages of development. In May 2020, only 25 countries were considering CBDCs at all. That growth happened fast.

Some regions are only starting to look toward CBDCs’ implementation, others are already halfway through.

The aforementioned Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker provides the most relevant information on the status of these projects worldwide.

Let’s review some of them.

CBDC Trackers Compared: Coverage, Update Frequency, and Methodology

👉 Quick takeaway: The Atlantic Council tracker offers the broadest global coverage at 130+ countries. CBDC Registry provides the most rigorous program-level data with source links and confidence labels but covers fewer programs. HRF's tracker frames CBDC development through a civil liberties lens that the other two do not.

Tracker	Countries Covered	Update Frequency	Methodology	Best For
Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker	🟢 130+ 🏆 Broadest global coverage	⚠️ Periodic (major updates)	Status categories + qualitative analysis	Policy researchers, journalists, broad global overview 🏆 Best for global landscape view
CBDC Registry cbdcregistry.org	⚠️ 34 programs with metrics	🟢 Near real-time Last verified Jul 29, 2026 🏆 Most current data	Source-linked evidence, confidence labels, wallet/transaction data 🏆 Most rigorous methodology	Analysts needing verified program-level metrics 🏆 Best for verifiable program data
HRF CBDC Tracker cbdctracker.hrf.org	Global country view	⚠️ Updated through May 2026	Country-level status with civil liberties framing	Privacy researchers, civil society, freedom-of-money angle 🏆 Only tracker with civil liberties framing

The Atlantic Council tracker is the most cited in media and policy circles. The CBDC Registry is the most granular for program-level data. The HRF tracker adds a civil liberties lens that the others do not.

Which Countries Have Launched a CBDC?

Launching a new type of payment for a whole country is a truly challenging task.

Four CBDCs are currently classified as live by the CBDC Registry as of mid-2026: the Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria eNaira, Jamaica JAM-DEX, and Cambodia Bakong.

A note on Bakong: the National Bank of Cambodia sometimes describes it as a payment platform rather than a CBDC in the strict sense, so some trackers categorize it differently.

The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union's DCash program launched across member islands but has experienced technical outages and uneven adoption since its 2021 rollout. The CBDC Registry uses source-linked confidence labels for each program, which is worth checking before citing any single status figure.

Live CBDCs at a Glance (CBDC Registry, Mid-2026)

👉 Quick takeaway: Only a handful of CBDCs have moved past pilot into live retail deployment. JAM-DEX is the first to be declared legal tender. The Sand Dollar has the widest geographic coverage relative to its market. The eNaira remains the clearest example of a live CBDC struggling with adoption. Bakong sits in a grey area, sometimes classified by its own central bank as a payment system rather than a true CBDC.

CBDC	Country	Launch Year	Type	Technology Provider	Key Metric
Sand Dollar	Bahamas	2020	Retail	NZIA Limited	🟢 Available across all major islands 🏆 Widest geographic coverage in its market
eNaira	Nigeria	2021	Retail	Bitt Inc.	🔴 Wallet adoption remains low relative to population
JAM-DEX	Jamaica	2022	Retail	eCurrency Mint	🟢 First CBDC declared legal tender 🏆 Only live CBDC with legal tender status
Bakong	Cambodia	2020	Retail / Hybrid	Soramitsu	⚠️ Classification disputed Central bank sometimes describes it as a payment system, not a CBDC

Note: Status classifications vary by tracker. The CBDC Registry uses source-linked confidence labels and verification dates. Always check the source date when citing live status.

Where the World Stands: CBDC Program Distribution

Live: 4 programs (12%)
Pilot: 15 programs (44%)
Sandbox: 1 program (3%)
Research: 9 programs (26%)
Discontinued: 2 programs (6%)
Planned: 1 program (3%)

Total: 34 tracked programs with official metrics.

The pilot category is by far the largest. That means most of the world's serious CBDC work is still in controlled testing, not public deployment. China's e-CNY, India's e-Rupee, and the EU's Digital Euro all sit in this category as of mid-2026.

Notable CBDC Projects

Now let’s shed a bit more light on the most interesting cases that have the highest chances of getting adopted at scale in the nearest future.

Project Helvetia

Switzerland has long had a reputation as the most secure vault for institutional investors worldwide.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has been exploring new means of storing and transferring value since 2020.

In January 2022, it successfully tested the integration of wholesale CBDCs.

Its key partners, International Settlements and SIX Digital Exchange, helped to integrate the new solution with the banking systems of five commercial banks.

As a wholesale CBDC, Helvetia serves mostly the interests of the Swiss Central Bank.

At this, the key use cases of this currency include various operations with wCBDC such as its issuance, redemption, reconciliation, etc.

Project Aber

Aber is another CBDC for wholesale payments with the joint forces of Saudi Arabia and the UAE standing behind its creation.

The key goal of the project is to create a digital currency to be used between the central banks of these regions and a limited number of selected financial corporations.

Initially launched as a pilot in 2019, the project went through various tests.

The Saudi Central Bank published the results on its official website a year later.

It looks like the project has been successful as the countries are moving on with its further implementation.

eNaira

Nigeria launched the eNaira on October 25, 2021, making it the first African country to go live with a retail CBDC. Early adoption was poor. By late 2022, fewer than 0.5% of Nigeria's 211 million citizens were using the eNaira wallet, according to Bloomberg reporting at the time. The government responded by capping weekly cash withdrawals at roughly $225 to push users toward the digital currency. The eNaira remains listed as live in the CBDC Registry as of mid-2026, though public adoption metrics have been inconsistent and independently verified wallet counts remain limited.

Project Dunbar

This international CBDC brings together the collective knowledge of several central banks from different regions.

The list includes the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the South African Reserve Bank.

The multi-CBDC platform features international settlements aiming to facilitate cross-border payments across these countries.

Project Dunbar completed its pilot phase and published findings through the BIS Innovation Hub. The project demonstrated that multiple CBDCs could share a single platform for cross-border settlement, cutting out correspondent banks. Whether it advances to a production system remains unconfirmed at this stage. Cross-border multi-CBDC work has since continued under related initiatives including mBridge and Project Guardian.

mBridge

mBridge is the most advanced multi-CBDC cross-border platform currently operating. It connects central banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia on a shared ledger built for wholesale settlement. The project moved past the prototype stage and into a minimum viable product phase, with live transactions between participating central banks. It is the clearest example of what cross-border CBDC infrastructure looks like in practice.

Project Guardian

Project Guardian is a collaborative initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It tests tokenized assets and wholesale CBDCs for cross-border use cases including fixed income, foreign exchange, and asset management. Several global banks participate in live pilots under the project. The focus is programmability: using smart contract logic to automate settlement conditions rather than relying on manual correspondent banking steps.

CBDC Issues

Despite all the advantages, the new payment method is not ideal.

Thus, the regions that have made good progress while implementing CBDCs have come across significant problems as well.

Here’s what authorities struggle with:

Interoperability

Just like with cryptocurrencies running on public blockchains, CBDCs face the interoperability problem.

The citizens of a selected region would easily make payments within this region.

But if they decide to send money abroad, the lack of user-friendly blockchain bridges may become a serious obstacle.

Adoption

The lack of general education may also prevent CBDCs from getting adopted at scale.

If citizens don’t understand the real value and the benefits they may get with the new type of currency, they simply won’t use it.

Nigeria comes forth as a good example here.

The local authorities use harsh methods as they ban the use of traditional money to make people switch to the blockchain. Will these methods work?

Only the time will show.

Surveillance/Censorship

CBDCs are programmable by design, and that programmability cuts both ways. A government can set spending limits, restrict use to approved merchants, or freeze a wallet without a court order. These are not theoretical risks. Nigeria's government restricted cash withdrawals to push eNaira adoption.

The IMF's CBDC Virtual Handbook addresses this directly, with chapters on data use governance, privacy-preserving design options, and the tradeoffs between financial surveillance and AML compliance. The HRF CBDC Tracker specifically tracks civil liberties implications of each program, rating countries on how much financial control their CBDC design hands to the state.

Tokenization and Programmability

The next wave of CBDC development is not about launching new retail currencies. It is about making existing and planned CBDCs programmable. Programmable money uses smart contract logic to automate conditions: a payment that only releases when a delivery is confirmed, or a government transfer that can only be spent on specific goods.

Both the Atlantic Council and CBDC Registry highlight tokenization and programmability as the dominant design trend heading into 2026 and beyond. Wholesale CBDCs are the primary test bed, with cross-border settlement experiments like mBridge and Project Guardian treating programmability as a core feature rather than an add-on.

How to Read a CBDC Tracker

CBDC trackers use different status labels, and the same country can appear differently depending on which tracker you check. Here is what the standard categories mean:

Research: The central bank is studying CBDC design. No public pilot exists yet.
Planned: An official announcement has been made. Development is underway but not publicly testable.
Sandbox: A controlled technical environment is running. Participation is limited to selected institutions or testers.
Pilot: A live public test is operating with real users and real money, but the system is not the official national payment method.
Live: The CBDC is deployed for general use as an official payment instrument.
Discontinued: The program was cancelled or suspended after launch or development.

When reading any tracker, check three things: the status date (when was this last verified?), the source (is the status based on an official central bank announcement or a secondary report?), and the confidence label (does the tracker disclose its evidence quality?). The CBDC Registry provides all three for each program. The Atlantic Council tracker is broader but updates less frequently at the program level.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many countries are exploring CBDCs in 2026?

The Atlantic Council CBDC Tracker covers 130+ countries and regions at varying stages. Not all of these have active development programs. Many are still in early research.

Which CBDCs are live right now?

As of mid-2026, the CBDC Registry lists four live programs: the Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria eNaira, Jamaica JAM-DEX, and Cambodia Bakong. Bakong carries a classification caveat since Cambodia's central bank sometimes describes it as a payment platform.

What is the difference between a pilot and a live CBDC?

A pilot runs with real users and real money but is not the official national payment method. A live CBDC is deployed for general public use as an official instrument. The distinction matters because pilot figures on adoption or transactions do not reflect full national rollout.

What are the biggest cross-border CBDC projects?

mBridge and Project Guardian are the two most active as of 2026. mBridge connects central banks from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Project Guardian, led by Singapore's MAS, tests tokenized wholesale settlements across multiple global banks.

Are CBDCs a threat to privacy?

This is a live policy debate. The IMF's CBDC Virtual Handbook dedicates full chapters to data use, privacy design, and governance frameworks. The design choices a central bank makes — particularly around transaction monitoring, spending limits, and programmability — determine how much financial surveillance a given CBDC enables.

CBDC Trackers Compared: Which Sources to Trust