The Tokenization of Money: Mapping the Global Regulatory Landscape and the Legal Desirability Question

This paper examines the global regulatory landscape for tokenized money, analyzing how jurisdictions assess the legal desirability of central bank digital currencies, tokenized deposits, and stablecoins. Legal desirability is defined as the systematic evaluation determining whether novel monetary payment instruments should be introduced and under what conditions. Analysing extensive documentation from international organizations and major jurisdictions during 2024-2025, the research reveals a fundamental paradox: technological convergence around distributed ledger technology masks profound regulatory divergence across legal frameworks, institutional designs, and monetary sovereignty priorities. While most central banks are exploring CBDCs, implementation strategies vary dramatically-from the EU's coordinated digital euro advancement, to US retail CBDC prohibition alongside stablecoin legalisation, to diverse Asia-Pacific implementations. Three convergent patterns emerge: wholesale CBDC experimentation for cross-border settlement, tokenized deposits as bank-issued money under existing frameworks, and comprehensive stablecoin regulation. Rather than a single dominant model, evidence reveals a multi-form monetary architecture featuring coexistence of wholesale CBDCs, tokenized deposits, and regulated stablecoins serving distinct use cases.