---
title: Digital Peso (CBDC Research)
type: technology
url: "https://www.envisioning.com/research/vault/latam-ex-brazil__mx-digital-peso-cbdc"
hub: vault
summary: Banxico is researching a digital peso as a complement to SPEI 2.0, exploring programmable money, offline payments, and cross-border settlement with the US Federal Reserve.
---

# Digital Peso (CBDC Research)

Banxico is researching a digital peso as a complement to SPEI 2.0, exploring programmable money, offline payments, and cross-border settlement with the US Federal Reserve.
- Technology Readiness Level: 3/9
- Impact: 3/5
- Investment: 2/5
Mexico's central bank (Banxico) is exploring a central bank digital currency — the digital peso — as a potential complement to the existing SPEI real-time payment system. The research phase is examining key design choices: retail vs. wholesale CBDC, token-based vs. account-based architecture, privacy vs. traceability tradeoffs, and the critical question of offline functionality for areas with limited internet connectivity.

The potential use cases are significant for Mexico: programmable money that automatically enforces government benefit conditions, instant cross-border settlement for the US-Mexico remittance corridor (potentially in partnership with the Federal Reserve's FedNow), and financial inclusion for populations that resist traditional banking but might adopt a government-backed digital wallet. SPEI 2.0 discussions explicitly reference the digital peso as a future evolution.

The strategic calculus mirrors Brazil's Drex project but is earlier-stage. Mexico's unique position — sharing the world's busiest economic border with the US — makes cross-border CBDC interoperability particularly valuable. However, the technical and political challenges are substantial: designing a system that works offline in rural Mexico, maintaining privacy while enabling AML compliance, and building consensus among banks that correctly view CBDC as potentially disintermediating their deposit base.

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Source: Envisioning — Technology Research Institute (https://www.envisioning.com/research/vault/latam-ex-brazil__mx-digital-peso-cbdc)