Central bank digital currencies: What is known and yet to be known?

Central banks of 134 nations explore or develop Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). For example, the United Kingdom's ‘Digital Pound’, Sweden's ‘e-Krona’, or the Bahamian ‘Sand Dollar’ mark a significant shift toward digital-native financial systems. As CBDCs move from proposals to operational reality, it becomes essential to explore and understand their role and potential impact, not merely as digital currencies, but as strategic digital infrastructures that could affect over 98% of global GDP. Specifically, CBDCs are often promoted for their potential to enhance monetary efficiency, security, and financial inclusion. However, critical concerns related to their integration with legacy systems, regulatory complexity, and the risks of government control and surveillance, are emerging. Despite increased awareness of these challenges, the dominant CBDC narrative continues to emphasize technological promise, which hinders the development of a coherent, cumulative, and critical understanding of CBDCs within the Information Systems (IS) discipline. To address this issue, we conduct an integrative, systematic, and IS-oriented PRISMA review and synthesis of 133 peer-reviewed CBDC research articles published between 2018 and January 2025. By synthesizing and interpreting extant CBDC research from an IS perspective, our analysis identifies four key research themes in relevant debates, exposes blind spots in the literature, and reconceptualizes CBDCs as socio-technical systems embedded in evolving institutional arrangements, contested power dynamics, and mechanisms of control. We delineate future opportunities for IS research, while also outlining strategic implications for policy and practice.