The European Union is considering anchoring its future digital euro on public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, according to Financial Times revelations. This choice would mark a major break from centralized approaches, like China, and could redefine the balance of monetary sovereignty in Europe.
The European Central Bank is taking a decisive strategic turn in its thinking around the digital euro. While initial hypotheses favored private and closed infrastructures, the ECB now closely examines public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. A direction that breaks from traditional models.
According to information reported by the Financial Times, this option is now being considered with much more seriousness by European officials. This evolution reflects an awareness: Europe can no longer remain on the sidelines of innovation driven by decentralized networks.
The issue goes far beyond a technical question. Choosing a public blockchain would position the digital euro in break with China’s strategy, which deploys its digital yuan on a strictly private network.
The European approach would thus paradoxically approach the American model, where actors like Circle issue stablecoins on open infrastructures.
Public blockchains mainly offer a key advantage: interoperability. A digital euro on Ethereum could integrate directly with existing DeFi protocols, strengthening the competitiveness of the European financial ecosystem. This native connectivity represents a major strategic asset in the global monetary battle.
This shift towards public blockchains occurs in a geopolitical context marked by intense monetary rivalry. Europe watches with growing concern the dominance of American stablecoins, which today concentrate nearly 98% of the global market.
Behind this hegemony lies a simple reality: every transaction in USDT or USDC strengthens the dollar’s influence at the expense of the euro. In this context, the digital euro appears as a strategic tool to preserve the monetary autonomy of the Old Continent.
Last April, Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB executive board, already warned about the dangers of excessive dependence on dollar stablecoins. Deploying a digital euro on a public blockchain would offer a credible alternative, capable of directly competing with American solutions on their own technological ground.
But this ambition also raises dark areas. As Juan Ignacio Ibañez from the DLT Scientific Foundation indicated in an interview with Cointelegraph, such a choice could trigger “increased state interest in influencing blockchain governance”.
The dilemma is clear: how to reconcile the decentralized spirit of Ethereum or Solana with the control desire of a central bank?
Europe can nevertheless rely on several ongoing initiatives. In May 2025, the ECB announced a collaboration with the COTI blockchain to test confidential digital payment solutions as part of the digital euro project.
These works notably focus on integrating mechanisms that guarantee transaction confidentiality while meeting the traceability requirements imposed on regulators.
This expertise could lay the foundation for a digital euro that is open, interoperable, and respectful of privacy.
The timetable remains tight: the ECB must decide by the end of 2025 whether the digital euro will truly see the light of day. But unlike Europe, the United States have already decided. Under Donald Trump, the prospect of a national CBDC was swept aside, and the debate seems closed for a long time.
Across the Atlantic, monetary innovation now relies on the dynamism of private stablecoins, largely backed by the dollar, and on a regulatory framework in full development.
In Europe, the situation is different. The digital euro project divides and still generates a lot of skepticism, both among citizens and in the private sector. The fear of a surveillance instrument or an overly centralized tool fuels mistrust.
In this context, the option of an infrastructure based on Ethereum or Solana could offer a more acceptable alternative. It would not make the criticisms disappear, but it would allow anchoring the digital euro in a technological framework already recognized and used worldwide.
