The President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, said on Monday 10 March that the euro area finance ministers “increasingly recognise the importance” of completing the digital euro project.
Mr Donohoe referred to developments in other jurisdictions that could have “significant consequences” in Europe, while US President Donald Trump has decreed the creation of a stablecoin reserve, including the retention of 200,000 bitcoins seized in legal proceedings.
For Pierre Gramegna, Managing Director of the ‘European Stability Mechanism’, the fact that the US administration is “now favourable to dollar-denominated stable coins” could boost plans by US digital giants to create “mass payment solutions” based on these digital currencies. Such projects could “affect the euro area monetary sovereignty and financial stability”, he warned, stressing the urgent need to create a digital euro.
Mr Gramegna welcomed the European Commission’s initiative to review the MiCA regulation governing the European cryptoasset market in order to counter “certain effects” of projects outside the EU. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)