IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v75y2025ics027553192500025x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tokenization as a pathway to anonymity in central bank digital currencies

Author

Listed:
  • Stroukal, Dominik
  • Peterka, Pavel

Abstract

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have emerged as a pivotal innovation in the financial landscape. However, a fundamental challenge arises when considering the inherent nature of retail CBDCs: the potential loss of transactional anonymity, a hallmark feature of physical cash. This paper posits that while direct digital representations of currency may struggle to maintain user anonymity due to traceable digital footprints, tokenization could offer a solution. However, tokenized CBDCs would require users to engage with hardware wallets and third-party storage solutions, initially presenting a barrier due to the general public's unfamiliarity with such technologies. We propose that broad tokenization may address these challenges. As tokenization spreads and the upcoming generation becomes proficient in handling private keys, CBDCs could mirror cash's anonymity. This paper highlights the role of financial and IT education in building trust in tokenization and bridging the anonymity gap between digital and physical currencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Stroukal, Dominik & Peterka, Pavel, 2025. "Tokenization as a pathway to anonymity in central bank digital currencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:75:y:2025:i:c:s027553192500025x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102769
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027553192500025X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102769?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sky Guo & Joseph Kreitem & Thomas Moser, 2024. "DLT Options for CBDC," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 13(1), pages 57-88.
    2. Ferry Syarifuddin & Toni Bakhtiar, 2022. "The Macroeconomic Effects of an Interest-Bearing CBDC: A DSGE Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-33, May.
    3. Bibi, Samuele & Canelli, Rosa, 2023. "The interpretation of CBDC within an endogenous money framework," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    4. Ferrari Minesso, Massimo & Mehl, Arnaud & Stracca, Livio, 2022. "Central bank digital currency in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 54-68.
    5. Lorenzo Burlon & Manuel A. Muñoz & Frank Smets, 2024. "The Optimal Quantity of CBDC in a Bank-Based Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 172-217, October.
    6. Kahn, Charles M. & Roberds, William, 2009. "Why pay? An introduction to payments economics," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-23, January.
    7. Morten Linnemann Bech & Rodney Garratt, 2017. "Central bank cryptocurrencies," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    8. Mohsen Bahmani‐Oskooee & Scott W. Hegerty, 2010. "The J‐ and S‐curves: a survey of the recent literature," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(6), pages 580-596, November.
    9. Barrdear, John & Kumhof, Michael, 2022. "The macroeconomics of central bank digital currencies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    10. Alessandro Acquisti & Curtis Taylor & Liad Wagman, 2016. "The Economics of Privacy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 442-492, June.
    11. Fatima Salahdine & Naima Kaabouch, 2019. "Social Engineering Attacks: A Survey," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, April.
    12. James Tobin, 1987. "The case for preserving regulatory distinctions," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 167-205.
    13. Yousaf, Imran & Goodell, John W., 2023. "Reputational contagion and the fall of FTX: Examining the response of tokens to the delegitimization of FTT," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    14. Cyril Monnet & Hyun Song Shin & Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Raphael Auer & Tara Rice, 2022. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: Motives, Economic Implications, and the Research Frontier," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 697-721, August.
    15. Francesca Carapella & Grace Chuan & Jacob Gerszten & Nathan Swem, 2023. "Tokenization: Overview and Financial Stability Implications," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-060, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Bibi, Samuele, 2023. "Money in the time of crypto," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Mohsen Bahmani‐Oskooee & Scott W. Hegerty, 2010. "The J‐ and S‐curves: a survey of the recent literature," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(6), pages 580-596, November.
    18. Xin, Baogui & Jiang, Kai, 2023. "Central bank digital currency and the effectiveness of negative interest rate policy: A DSGE analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dionysopoulos, Lambis & Marra, Miriam & Urquhart, Andrew, 2024. "Central bank digital currencies: A critical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Peng, Wei & Xin, Baogui & Tan, Hui & Kwon, Jiwon, 2025. "The co-effects of technology innovation and digital infrastructure on central bank digital currency: A DSGE analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Xiang, Lijin & Feng, Chao & Xiao, Zumian & Liu, Jianjian, 2024. "The impact of central bank digital currency on macroeconomic dynamics: A DSGE analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Magin, Jana & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2023. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Different CBDC Regimes in an Economy with a Heterogeneous Household Sector," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277656, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Magin, Jana Anjali & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2025. "Cash or Cache? Distributional and business cycle implications of CBDC holding limits," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. Moro, Alessandro & Nispi Landi, Valerio, 2024. "The external financial spillovers of CBDCs," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    7. Xin, Baogui & Jiang, Kai & Santibanez Gonzalez, Ernesto D.R., 2024. "The coevolution effect of central bank digital currency and green bonds on the net-zero economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Magin, Jana Anjali & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of different CBDC regimes in an economy with a heterogeneous household sector," DICE Discussion Papers 396, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    9. Raphael A. Auer & Giulio Cornelli & Jon Frost, 2020. "Rise of the Central Bank Digital Currencies: Drivers, Approaches and Technologies," CESifo Working Paper Series 8655, CESifo.
    10. Alonso-Robisco, Andres & Carbó, José Manuel, 2023. "Analysis of CBDC narrative by central banks using large language models," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    11. Javed Iqbal & Sitara Jabeen & Misbah Nosheen & Mark Wohar, 2024. "The Asymmetric Effects of Exchange Rate Volatility on Pakistan–Japan Commodity Trade: Evidence from Non-linear ARDL Approach," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(3), pages 657-732, September.
    12. Cong, Lin William & Mayer, Simon, "undated". "The Coming Battle of Digital Currencies," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 320020, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    13. Jonas Ljungberg, 2024. "Competitive devaluations in the 1930s: myth or reality?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 18(1), pages 151-189, January.
    14. Rehman, Mubeen Abdur & Irfan, Muhammad & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Lucey, Brian M. & Karim, Sitara, 2023. "Macro-financial implications of central bank digital currencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Paulo Rupino Cunha & Paulo Melo & Helder Sebastião, 2021. "From Bitcoin to Central Bank Digital Currencies: Making Sense of the Digital Money Revolution," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, June.
    16. Muhammad Aftab & Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee & Huseyin Karamelikli, 2023. "Do currency manipulations hurt US bilateral trade balance?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 127-144, March.
    17. Isaiah Hull & Or Sattath, 2021. "Revisiting the Properties of Money," Papers 2111.04483, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2021.
    18. Shaar, Karam & Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi, 2016. "US-China trade and exchange rate dilemma: The role of trade data discrepancy," Working Paper Series 19469, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    19. Abad, Jorge & Nuño, Galo & Thomas, Carlos, 2025. "CBDC and the operational framework of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    20. Mishra, Bineet & Prasad, Eswar, 2024. "A simple model of a central bank digital currency," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:75:y:2025:i:c:s027553192500025x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ribaf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.