The governor of the US state of North Carolina has vetoed House Bill 690, which seeks to ban state payments using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the state’s participation in the Federal Reserve’s CBDC testing.
The governor argued the bill was premature and emphasized the need for more funding for cybersecurity.
House Bill 690 Vetoed: Governor Cooper Halts CBDC Ban in North Carolina
Roy Cooper, Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina, has vetoed House Bill 690 (HB 690), titled “An act to prohibit payments to the state using central bank digital currency or participation by the state in Federal Reserve’s testing of central bank digital currency.”
In his veto message, Governor Cooper stated: “Efforts are being made at the federal level to ensure standards and safeguards are in place to protect consumers, investors, and businesses that may want to make monetary transactions in digital assets and North Carolina should wait to see how they work before taking action.” The governor added:
This legislation is premature, vague, and reactionary and proposes an end result on important monetary decisions that haven’t even been made yet.
Instead of this bill, the legislature should have passed a budget to provide more funding for cybersecurity threats that actually exist now. Therefore, I veto the bill.
Dan Spuller, Head of Industry Affairs at the Blockchain Association, expressed disappointment over the veto. He noted that HB 690 was a “widely supported, bipartisan” bill, which “passed unanimously in the NC House last summer and decisively in the NC Senate last week.” Spuller stressed:
By vetoing this bill, the governor missed an opportunity to send a clear message to the Federal Reserve that North Carolina stands united against the creation of a CBDC. This veto must be overridden.
He emphasized that digital assets policy should remain in the hands of the American people, ensuring any development of digital currency reflects values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness.
What do you think about North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of House Bill 690 and the future of CBDCs in North Carolina? Let us know in the comments section below.
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