North Carolina’s General Assembly has passed a bill banning the state from implementing a United States Federal Reserve-issued central bank digital currency (CBDC), with the Senate overriding a veto by Governor Roy Cooper.
The Republican-led Senate delivered a 27-17 vote in favor on Sept. 9, narrowly surpassing the 60% majority needed to override a veto from Cooper — a Democrat — and pass House Bill 690 into law.
It comes after North Carolina’s House voted to overturn Cooper’s veto in a 73-41 vote in early August.
North Carolina Senate vote on House Bill 690 veto. Source: North Carolina General Assembly
The bill forbids the state of North Carolina from accepting CBDCs as a form of payment and prohibits it from participating in future CBDC tests conducted “by any Federal Reserve branch.”
Cooper’s July 5 veto followed a lopsided 109–4 vote in the House and a 39–5 vote in the Senate a month earlier.
The latest veto-busting Senate vote was much closer, with 12 Democrats who initially supported the bill flipping to support Cooper’s veto.
Not a single Senate Democrat voted to pass the bill this time.
Blockware Solutions head analyst Mitchell Askew told Cointelegraph it is “amazing” to see CBDCs officially banned in his native state — but wasn’t pleased with how the Senate vote panned out.
“12 Democrats flipping their position to support the veto confirms my initial hypothesis that the veto was due to Cooper playing partisan politics.”
In a Sept. 9 X post, Blockchain Association’s head of industry affairs Dan Spuller iterated that Cooper’s veto effectively “blew an opportunity” to send a message to the Federal Reserve that North Carolina stands “united” against CBDCs.
Source: Dan Spuller
Cooper’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill’s passing.
While CBDCs have been researched by the Federal Reserve, its Chair Jerome Powell stated on July 31 that “there’s really nothing new going on at all” with a US-issued CBDC.
At a federal Senate Banking Committee hearing in March, he said the US was “nowhere near recommending or let alone adopting a central bank digital currency in any form.”
Despite the Fed’s assurances, the US House passed the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act in May. A companion bill has been introduced to the Senate by Senator Ted Cruz.
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