A US law has accelerated dollar-backed stablecoins, prompting the ECB to push for a digital euro by 2029. Luxembourg, the EU base for PayPal and Amazon and a hub for blockchain-bond experiments, is unusually exposed to the outcome.
The European Central Bank spent 2026 moving its digital euro from study to trial, inviting banks to join a pilot and pressing lawmakers to pass the enabling regulation. A digital euro would be public money on your phone - a complement to cash, not a replacement - with a cap on how much you can hold and a cash-like privacy mode offline. Here is where the project stands and what it would mean.
Luxembourg Finance Minister Gilles Roth joined Eurogroup and informal ECOFIN talks in Nicosia on 22-23 May. Ministers discussed the Commission’s Spring 2026 forecast, Middle East energy-price spillovers, housing and competitiveness, digital-euro progress, stablecoins and the long-term sustainability of public spending.