A European Central Bank research paper on the feasibility of the digital euro has garnered a lot of attention over the past couple of weeks.It would, as the FT’s Martin Sandbu writes here, appear as though the writing is on the wall and the eurozone will launch its own central bank-backed digital currency in the not too distant future:
After six months of consultation and initial technical experimentation, the ECB’s governing council will decide on an investigation phase that could take about a year and a half, then take another decision on whether to actually develop a digital euro, which could take another couple of years depending on the chosen design. So let me stick my neck out and predict an official digital euro will come to an e-wallet near you by the end of 2025. You heard it here first.
