U.S. government digital dollar set to be banned tonight under housing law's CBDC limit

The crypto industry's long animosity toward the idea of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be rewarded with a ban under the housing bill set to pass into law in the first moment of Saturday.

For four years, the Federal Reserve won't be permitted to issue its own digital dollar, which Republican lawmakers have held up as a threat of potential overreaching government surveillance, though there hasn't yet been a serious effort in the U.S. to institute one. The restriction was part of Congress' bipartisan housing-affordability bill that President Donald Trump refused to sign into law.

"I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT," the president wrote in a Friday post on his Truth Social website.

The U.S. Constitution, however, says that once the president is given a congressionally approved bill, it becomes law after a 10-day window whether he signs it or not. Trump hasn't chosen to formally veto the bill, so it's now set up for a midnight passage.