The politics of digital money: cryptocurrencies and the future of the euro

The rise of cryptocurrencies and global stablecoins has intensified debates about the future of money and challenged states’ capacity to maintain monetary sovereignty. In Europe, these pressures have elevated the digital euro as both a response to private digital money and a strategic tool for strengthening the EU’s financial autonomy. This presentation examines the political dynamics shaping the digital euro, with a focus on supranational leadership, institutional contestation, and domestic resistance. It demonstrates how the European Central Bank and the European Commission have developed a shared narrative that links financial innovation, market integration, and geopolitical resilience. Yet Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) remain politically contested. Disagreements over the design of the digital euro - including holding limits, remuneration, privacy safeguards, and governance competences - expose bureaucratic rivalries and divergent preferences. Meanwhile, domestic opposition has grown, with commercial banks wary of disintermediation finding surprisingly common cause with emerging crypto populism, which casts CBDCs as technocratic overreach and crypto as a path to financial freedom. Situating the digital euro within these pressures reveals how digital monetary innovation is both strategically driven and politically contested, illuminating the politics of European monetary sovereignty in the digital age.

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