Former US CFTC Chairman Calls Digital Dollar "Inevitable," US Low-Key Participating in CBDC Infrastructure Construction

May 20th News, according to CoinDesk, former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad stated that despite the Trump administration's public opposition to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and government-backed stablecoins, the US launching a digital dollar or government-backed stablecoin is "ultimately inevitable." He claimed that the White House has been discussing relevant plans behind closed doors, and the US is participating in Project Agora, led by the BIS and involving seven central banks, to explore CBDC-style settlement infrastructure. Mark Gould, head of payments at the Federal Reserve, stated that a digital dollar is currently "not within its purview," but acknowledged that the Federal Reserve would be responsible if one were launched. Massad believes that the global trend of tokenizing assets on-chain and settlement will force the US to establish an official on-chain settlement alternative to avoid losing its competitive edge against Europe.