- EU explores issuing a digital euro on Ethereum or Solana.
- Move follows the U.S. GENIUS Act, with an ECB decision expected in October 2025.
The European Union is assessing whether a digital euro could run on public blockchains such as Ethereum or Solana following fresh momentum in global stablecoin regulation in the United States.
Officials study Ethereum and Solana as potential issuance rails
People familiar with ongoing discussions say policymakers in Brussels and Frankfurt are evaluating the feasibility of issuing and settling a tokenised euro on established public networks.
The review marks a shift from earlier work that leaned toward closed infrastructure due to data protection and privacy considerations. The European Central Bank has confirmed it is testing both centralised and decentralised designs and has not selected a final architecture.
Using a public chain would expand distribution to a wide base of existing wallets and developer tools while requiring strict controls over identity, sanctions screening and transaction limits.
Officials are considering how smart contract logic could enforce monetary and compliance rules at the protocol layer without exposing personal data on chain. Any live deployment would still need to reconcile on-chain activity with the Eurosystem’s settlement and supervisory frameworks.
ECB sets October 2025 decision point for the project’s next phase
The ECB is in a multi-year preparation phase for a retail digital euro. The Governing Council has indicated it will decide on the way forward after the current phase ends in October 2025.
A decision to issue would come later and depends on the completion of EU legislation. This timetable shapes how far technical work on public versus private rails can advance in the near term.
Momentum has increased after the United States enacted the GENIUS Act, the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins.
European officials view the rapid growth of dollar-linked tokens as a strategic challenge and are examining design choices that could speed adoption of a euro-denominated alternative. The law’s passage has sharpened focus on interoperability and settlement finality across jurisdictions.
Key questions for a public-chain model include throughput during peak retail hours, resilience against network outages and governance over protocol upgrades. Ethereum offers mature token standards and deep liquidity, while Solana emphasises low fees and high throughput.
Either route would likely use permissioned controls for issuance and redemption, paired with privacy-preserving techniques for retail use. Policymakers are also weighing offline functionality, which remains easier to deliver in non-public architectures.
For banks, payment firms and crypto service providers, a digital euro on a public chain would have clear integration paths but would also introduce operational obligations around custody, segregated reserves and customer protection.
Market participants are preparing consultation responses that focus on wallet design, transaction caps and programmability guardrails to ensure the instrument functions as public money rather than a new deposit competitor.
At the time of writing, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at USD 4,243.95, reflecting a decrease of USD 16.83, which corresponds to a –0.395% change from the previous close.
Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) is priced at USD 178.97, showing a drop of USD 5.05, marking a –2.744% change over the last 24 hours.
