The issue of digital euro, on the surface, is about payment autonomy, but in reality, it's about fearing that USD stablecoins will take the lead and fill the gap first. Lagarde spoke quite urgently, but with 13 countries lacking their own card systems, catching up is not just about issuing tokens; it's more complicated than that.

European Central Bank President Lagarde stated that the digital euro will help Europe reduce dependence on foreign payment infrastructure and provide a payment tool that can be used throughout the Eurozone. She pointed out that Europe does not have its own pan-European bank card system, with over 60% of bank card payments relying on international card organizations, and 13 out of 21 Eurozone countries lacking their own bank card systems. Lagarde said that stablecoins in U.S. dollars are trying to fill the gap of slow and expensive cross-border payments, and Europe needs to act faster. She stated that for tokenized finance to develop on a large scale, it must rely on central bank currency settlement, otherwise it will split into private isolated islands. (Econostream)