ECB Outlines Three-Pillar Digital Euro Plan With 2029 Issuance Target
An ECB board member detailed a three-pillar plan for the digital euro, with a first issuance date as early as 2029. The plan establishes a formal timeline and structural framework for the ECB's central bank digital currency.
Digital Euro: the holding cap is the tell
The ECB isn't hiding what it's afraid of. The individual holding cap — a hard limit on how much digital euro any person can own — exists for one reason: to stop people moving their savings out of commercial banks and into central bank money the moment things get scary.
That's a strange design choice for something billed as a payments upgrade. It's also an honest one.
A tool genuinely meant for everyday purchases doesn't need a ceiling. The ceiling is there to protect the banking system from its own customers. The digital euro is sovereign money engineered to stay small.