Political Shifts: The Future of Cryptocurrency in the U.S. and EU

The political landscape for Trump’s Pro-Crypto has dramatically shifted in the United States, moving from a hostile approach under Joe Biden and Gary Gensler to a more favorable stance with the Trump administration supporting Bitcoin and the broader crypto market. Conversely, European Central Bank (ECB) officials continue to emphasize the necessity of implementing a digital euro.

Key Highlights

The political upheaval in the United States now favors Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies with Trump’s administration, contrasting the previous hostility under Biden.
In the European Union, the ECB is intensifying its efforts to launch a digital euro amidst concerns over “the threat of American stablecoins.”

ECB’s Vision for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

In an interview with Reuters, Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank board, expressed his “hope” that the European Union will pass laws to establish its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) before the summer of 2025.

Cipollone noted that the support for stablecoins backed by the US dollar under President Donald Trump could “lead to the creation of another payment tool made in the USA“—alongside services like Visa and PayPal— and would “add urgency to the digital euro project.”

“The political world is becoming increasingly attentive to this issue [of CBDCs]. (…) We may witness an acceleration of the process. (…) Political processes are complex, and there are many factors at play. (…) But it is evident that the sooner, the better (…).”
Piero Cipollone, ECB Board Member

Will a Digital Euro Launch in the EU Before the End of 2025?

According to Reuters, Cipollone anticipates that both the European Parliament and the Council will “wrap up the legislative process regarding the digital euro before summer.”

The ECB board member hopes that definitive regulations regarding the CBDC will be finalized “by November 2025,” with a vote on the rollout of the digital euro expected by the end of that year.

This push for urgency stems from his “concerns” about American stablecoins:

“If citizens in Europe prefer to use stablecoins for payments, given that most of them are American and dollar-based, they will transfer their deposits from Europe to the United States.”
Piero Cipollone, ECB Board Member

This ambition to expedite the implementation of a digital euro by the ECB sharply contrasts with recent developments in the United States. Indeed, right at the start of his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any launch of a CBDC by U.S. federal agencies, in the same declaration where he announced a “national strategic reserve of digital assets.”