The European Central Bank is planning a digital euro pilot in 2027, with a targeted first issuance penciled in for 2029.

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Traditional commercial banks are developing their own digital currencies, a development welcomed by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire

Regulators should require central bank money for settling tokenized securities

A privately managed tenge stablecoin is preferable to a state-run central bank digital currency

The National Bank of Kazakhstan should partner with Tether to develop its digital currency infrastructure

Private bank stablecoins are preferable to central bank digital currencies for tokenized settlement

Several economies are exploring their own alternatives to U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins

The ECB should proceed with launching a retail digital euro

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde worried that the proliferation of dollar-based stablecoins via Binance would undermine the central bank's digital euro project.

The European Union should prioritize the digital euro over private stablecoins

Hong Kong's planned wholesale central bank digital currency launch by the end of 2026 is part of Project EnsembleTX, which aims to ease time constraints in existing payment systems

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to launch a wholesale central bank digital currency for 24/7 interbank payments and tokenized deposit settlement by the end of 2026.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed the second phase of its digital currency pilot in 2025, testing e-HKD and tokenized deposits across 11 financial use cases.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched an after-hours central bank digital currency pilot in June 2026 to test advance margin transfers outside regular banking hours.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are developing a wholesale central bank digital currency payment solution for after-hours derivatives trading, targeting real-value transactions in 2026.

The European Central Bank opened applications on September 15, 2026, for online merchants to join a controlled pilot of the proposed digital euro.

The European Central Bank must make a separate, formal decision to issue a digital euro even after European Union lawmakers adopt a legal framework.

The European Parliament authorized negotiations on the proposed legal framework for the digital euro in July 2026.

Legislation regarding the digital euro legal framework remained under discussion when the European Central Bank opened the merchant application call in September 2026.

EU-established e-commerce and mobile-commerce businesses have until 17:00 CET on October 27, 2026, to apply for the European Central Bank's digital euro pilot.

The digital euro beta pilot will not constitute the digital euro defined under proposed EU Regulation and will not carry legal-tender status.