When Coinbase and Circle formed the CENTRE Consortium back in 2018, they were extremely clear, at least internally, that they were trying to build what would become FedCoin. They hoped that, because USDC is already designed such that it can be completely controlled by its issuers (they can freeze any wallet at any time), by the time the Fed realized that CBDCs were inevitable, they would just adopt the existing "legitimate" leader rather than trying to roll their own.