President Donald Trump has fulfilled his promise to embrace cryptocurrency, with a Thursday executive order promoting digital assets and prohibiting the establishment of a controversial Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

“The digital asset industry plays a crucial role in innovation and economic development in the United States, as well as our Nation’s international leadership.  It is therefore the policy of my Administration to support the responsible growth and use of digital assets, blockchain technology, and related technologies across all sectors of the economy,” said President Trump.

The order protects the rights of everyday Americans to maintain self-custody of Bitcoin and other lesser digital assets collectively known as cryptocurrency. The order also permits the mining and use of digital assets for lawful transactions without government censorship.

The government will also begin to promote the development of U.S. dollar-backed “stablecoins” worldwide. Stablecoins — such as Tether or USDC — are digital currencies pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Though they track the value of the U.S. dollar, they are not controlled or administered by a central government, like a CBDC would be.

Trump’s order also serves as an unequivocal ban on the development or use of a CBDC in the U.S.

A CBDC, unlike existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin that allow for free and unmonitored transactions, would be a centralized, government-issued cryptocurrency that gives federal bureaucrats essentially boundless control over commerce.

Bitcoin, the first and most valuable digital currency, sometimes likened to digital gold, is controlled by a decentralized network of computers that share a common set of rules. No one user can change the rules without consensus among a majority of users. The total supply of bitcoin is pre-determined and fixed at 21 million and transactions on the bitcoin cannot be stopped or censored by government authorities.

With a CBDC, the central government could see every transaction, freeze any at will, impose arbitrary restrictions on what anyone can buy, and completely freeze accounts on a whim. A central government controlling a CBDC could also generate new digital currency from thin air or impose a negative interest rate on savings accounts to stimulate spending.

A hypothetical CBDC could also allow for programming intended to influence behavior. For example, a CBDC would allow the government to enforce environmental controls on purchases of everyday items, limit the amount of red meat someone could buy, or completely cut someone off from their funds for a right-wing opinion expressed online.

In service of that ban, the order revokes a 2022 order issued by President Joe Biden calling for the development of a CBDC.

“My administration places the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC,” said President Biden’s order.

Trump’s order doesn’t just work against government overreach through a CBDC; it also protects the rights of Americans to access banking services.

Conservatives have become the target of de-banking, with Trump accusing the Bank of America of refusing to do business with conservatives, an accusation that the bank has denied.

Perhaps the most infamous incident of de-banking came in 2022 when the Canadian government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, unilaterally decided to freeze the bank accounts of truckers who were protesting against the country’s draconian and economically devastating COVID pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates.