The European Central Bank (ECB) has released its third progress report on the digital euro preparation phase, spanning November 2024 to April 2025, alongside a letter from ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone to Aurore Lalucq, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).
These updates indicate significant strides in the development of a potential digital euro, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) aimed at complementing cash while enhancing Europe’s payment ecosystem.
The initiative seemingly reflects the ECB’s commitment to price stability, financial inclusion, and innovation in the euro area, as it navigates technical, legislative, and societal considerations.
The digital euro project, now in its preparation phase since November 2023, seeks to lay the groundwork for a digital currency that is secure, accessible, and integrated into the European financial system.
The third progress report confirms that key milestones remain on track, with a focus on developing the digital euro scheme rulebook, a critical framework to standardize payments across the euro area.
The Rulebook Development Group (RDG), comprising senior representatives from retailers, consumers, payment service providers (PSPs), and observers from the Eurosystem and EU institutions, has been instrumental in this process.
From November 2024 to April 2025, the RDG reviewed and refined draft rulebook sections, addressing over 2,000 comments received in 2024.
Workstreams involving around 50 participants from over 30 organizations tackled user experience, brand rules, implementation specifications, and risk management, ensuring the rulebook aligns with industry standards and user needs.
A cornerstone of the ECB’s approach is stakeholder engagement, emphasized in both the report and Cipollone’s letter to Lalucq.
The ECB launched an innovation platform in October 2024, reportedly attracting over 100 applications and selecting approximately 70 market participants, including merchants, fintechs, banks, and startups.
This platform, active from February to May 2025, comprises two workstreams: “pioneers,” who conducted technical tests on features like conditional payments (e.g., payments triggered upon parcel delivery), and “visionaries,” who explored conceptual use cases for integrating the digital euro into the financial ecosystem.
These efforts aim to ensure the digital euro is practical and innovative, with findings expected in July 2025.
Additionally, the ECB engaged small merchants, vulnerable consumers, and under-represented groups through focus groups, interviews, and collaborations with consumer associations.
This user research, started in September 2024, seeks to make the digital euro inclusive and accessible, with results due in Q3 2025.
ECB is also supporting legislative efforts, providing technical expertise to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
Cipollone’s letter underscores ongoing dialogue with policymakers, including a public exchange at the ECON Committee in September 2024 and updates to the Eurogroup in October 2024.
Technical discussions with mobile device manufacturers and PSPs have advanced the design of offline digital euro solutions, focusing on secure elements in mobile devices.
The ECB is also developing a methodology for calibrating digital euro holding limits, balancing user experience with monetary policy and financial stability, in consultation with the European Retail Payments Board.
Despite these advancements, claims on social media platforms like X suggesting the ECB has selected the XRP Ledger for a digital euro pilot starting June 2025 lack substantiation from official ECB sources. Moreover, at this point, it is more important to determine the usefulness and feasibility of actually issuing a digital euro.
The ECB’s focus remains on collaborative, transparent development, with no specific blockchain technology / DLT confirmed in the cited documents.
As the preparation phase progresses, the ECB says it remains committed to transparency, with the next progress report slated for later this year.
The digital euro, if realized, could potentially enhance Europe’s economic security and global financial role, supporting a competitive, resilient payment system by 2028. However, it still remains unclear whether initiatives like the digital euro will actually benefit end-users and enable greater financial inclusion.