Overview
- EU member states adopted a negotiating position for digital-euro legislation that enables trilogue talks and endorses both online and offline payment modes.
- The offline option targets cash-like privacy for low-value, device-to-device transfers, though the EDPB warns it cannot be fully anonymous or guarantee true physical proximity.
- The Council requires the ECB to impose wallet holding limits to keep the currency a payments tool rather than a store of value and to reduce risks of deposit flight from banks.
- Scope is widened beyond retail to include business-to-business, machine-to-machine and Web3 payments, rejecting a November push for an offline-only design.
- The ECB says the technical groundwork is largely complete; legislation will define privacy, AML, holding caps and provider compensation, with the 2029 launch timeline still provisional.