Finance
Money
The digital euro inches closer: what it is, and what it is not
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.