Financial TimesFinancial Times

How digital cash got caught up in the culture wars

By Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan

06 Sep 2023 · 10 min read

At a conference in April, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis veered from familiar swipes at diversity, inclusion and “corporate wokeness” to take aim at a more surprising target.

“One of the things we’re going to ban in Florida this year is the idea of a central bank digital currency,” he told the audience in Pennsylvania, to whoops and cheers. “Guess what’ll happen? They’re going to try and impose an ESG agenda through that.”

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