Brazil's central bank digital currency, Drex, will forgo blockchain technology for a 2026 launch.

PANews reported on August 9th that Brazil's central bank digital currency (CBDC), Drex, will abandon most tokenization and blockchain technology, with a planned launch date of 2026, according to News.bitcoin, citing local media reports. Fabio Araujo, the central bank's Drex project coordinator, confirmed the change and stated that the new plan will be implemented in two phases: the first phase will not include decentralized elements and is expected to launch next year; the second phase will continue to implement and refine blockchain technology.

Due to the lack of programmability in the underlying architecture, implementing a centralized Drex means that many use cases tested during the two phases of the pilot will not be possible. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the project will be able to continue using Hyperledger Besu, an open-source, Ethereum-compatible blockchain platform solution that was selected as the development platform for Drex back in 2023.