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Read. Follow. Verify.Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (S. 1124)
Last action · March 25, 2025: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.Sponsors: Ted Cruz and 8 others
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What This Bill Would Do
This bill proposes to amend the Federal Reserve Act to explicitly prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a or offering direct accounts to individuals. It also restricts the Federal Reserve from testing, developing, or using any digital asset that functions as a CBDC to implement .
If passed, this bill would legally prevent the Federal Reserve from creating a digital dollar or providing direct banking services to the public, ensuring that the Federal Reserve cannot bypass private financial institutions to interact directly with individual consumer accounts.
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Federal Reserve System
The agency is prohibited from developing, testing, or issuing a CBDC and is restricted from offering direct services to individuals.
Commercial Banks and Financial Institutions
These entities remain the primary intermediaries for individual accounts, as the bill prevents the Federal Reserve from competing directly for individual customers.
Key Facts
- Prohibits Federal Reserve banks from offering products or services directly to individuals.
- Prohibits Federal Reserve banks from maintaining accounts for individuals.
- Prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or any substantially similar digital asset.
- Prohibits the Federal Reserve from offering a CBDC indirectly to individuals through financial intermediaries.
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- Prohibits the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from testing, studying, developing, creating, or implementing a CBDC.
- Prohibits the Federal Reserve and the Federal Open Market Committee from using a CBDC to implement monetary policy.
- Provides an exception for dollar-denominated currencies that are open, permissionless, private, and preserve the privacy of physical currency.
- Defines CBDC as digital money denominated in the national unit of account, a direct liability of the Federal Reserve, and widely available to the public.
- States the sense of Congress that the Federal Reserve lacks the authority to issue a CBDC without explicit Congressional authorization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Would this bill stop me from using digital banking or apps like Venmo?
Does this bill ban all digital currencies?
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News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
2 actions- Mar 25, 2025SenateCommitteeRead twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
- Mar 25, 2025SenateIntroducedIntroduced in Senate
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
CRYPTO COUNCIL FOR INNOVATION
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Preemptive Legislative Restriction
The bill seeks to codify a prohibition on CBDCs before the Federal Reserve has officially launched or fully developed such a system, effectively setting a legislative boundary on future monetary innovation.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.congress.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance85How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy75Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment20Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz60Current news / social attention level
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