When we talk about European autonomy and sovereignty, our thoughts almost always turn to defence, energy, semiconductors or telecommunications.
Rarely, however, is consideration given to a sector that is just as strategic: digital payments and the infrastructure that makes them possible.
Yet billions of euros flow along these ‘invisible tracks’ every day, underpinning the functioning of the European economy.

Whenever a European citizen pays for a coffee by card, buys a product online or uses their smartphone to make a payment, it is highly likely that that transaction will pass through infrastructure managed by private operators based outside Europe, such as Visa or Mastercard.
It is this realisation that has given rise to the ideaof the digital euro within the European Central Bank: often presented as a technological innovation, in reality it represents a further step in a broader European strategy aimed at increasing its autonomy in the digital payments sector, which is currently dominated by external players.

The rapid shift in the global geopolitical balance has brought control of strategic infrastructure back to the forefront of the debate.
Whilst until a few years ago the focus was mainly on the energy sector, semiconductors and other areas, today payment systems have also become a key part of the geopolitical and geo-economic competition between global superpowers.
This is because, in the 21st century, economic power depends not only on who issues a currency, but also on who controls its infrastructure.

History shows that a currency has never been merely a means of payment.
The more a currency is used outside the borders of the country that issues it, the greater the strategic advantage for that country.

A currency attracts capital, increases demand for a country’s government bonds, reduces its borrowing costs in terms of interest on debt, and thus enhances its economic influence.
Political economists refer to thisas ‘currency statecraft’, that is, the ability to transform one’s own currency into an instrument of power. It is thanks to this concept that the dollar stands as the main pillar of the global economy and trade.

With the advent of new technologies, the competitive landscape for currencies is undergoing profound change.
Whilst in the last century the dominance of a currency depended primarily on international trade and its use in financial markets, in the 2020s monetary power is increasingly channelled through digital infrastructures that facilitate its circulation.
Tools such as wallets, payment networks and stablecoins are gaining popularity thanks to lower transaction costs. Controlling these infrastructures means helping to define the strategic and financial standards of the future. It is within this context that the digital euro proposed by the ECB fits.

In a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape driven by the multipolarisation of the world order, stablecoins could represent a very significant geo-economic disadvantage for the European Union and the euro area.

These instruments are, in fact, digital tokens whose value is pegged to a traditional currency such as the euro or the dollar, and are designed to be used for payments and within the digital economy.
According to the European Central Bank’s Financial Stability Review published in November 2025, the current market capitalisation of stablecoins stands at around 280 billion dollars, and 99 per cent of these stablecoins are pegged to the value of the dollar.

These include the USDT, managed by Tether, and the USDC, managed by the Centre consortium.
The market capitalisation of stablecoins pegged to the value of the euro, on the other hand, stands at around 390 million euros, representing just 0.2 per cent of the total market capitalisation of this asset class.

Thanks to the gradual spread of this instrument, the currency that comes to dominate such instruments could strengthen its international role, thereby conferring greater geopolitical clout on the country that holds it.
This is the risk highlighted by the ECB. If European citizens and businesses were to make increasing use of dollar-denominated stablecoins , part of the digital economy would end up developing around a monetary infrastructure outside the European Union.
As reported by Philip Lane, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Economist of the ECB, the risk posed by this trend is what is known as ‘digital dollarisation’, that is, a process aimed at strengthening the dollar through the spread of stablecoins at the expense of the euro.

As Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB’s Executive Board, pointed out, in the digital age, monetary sovereignty no longer depends solely on the ability to issue currency, but also on the ability to provide a European infrastructure through which citizens and businesses can use it.

From this perspective, the digital euro is not merely a new means of payment, but a tool designed to safeguard the role of the European public currency in an increasingly digital and competitive financial ecosystem.

So, the challenge ahead is not just about how we will pay for a coffee tomorrow, but about who will control the ‘invisible tracks’ along which the European currency will travel in the coming decades.

Sources

Financial Stability Review, ECB, November 2025, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/financial-stability-publications/fsr/focus/2025/html/ecb.fsrbox202511_05~63636227b4.it.html

Keynote speech by Philip Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB https://www.bis.org/review/r250324l.pdf?utm_source

Keynote speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the 13th Economics of Payments Conference organised by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2024/html/ecb.sp240927~11ed8493a4.it.html

The international role of the euro, June 2022 https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/ire/ecb.ire202206~6f3ddeab26.en.pdf

What will the digital euro be? https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/features/html/index.en.html

The role of commercial banks in the digital euro https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/how-it-works/html/index.en.html

Speech by Christine Lagarde to the European Parliament https://video.milanofinanza.it/video/euro-digitale-christine-lagarde-garantira-riservatezza-la-bce-non-avra-accesso-ai-dati-personali–x9zmkr8