European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Tuesday that digital euro regulation and the regulation on the legal tender status of cash "has become urgent" as the European Union seeks to decrease its "ever-increasing dependence" on foreign companies. He said the EU's reliance on non-European payment systems is a "structural weakness" that must be addressed to increase the union's strategic autonomy.

Cipollone pointed to the Trump administration's promotion of crypto-assets and dollar-backed stablecoins as raising concerns, including losses of fees and data, euro deposits being moved to the US and a "further strengthening of the role of the dollar in cross-border payments." He argued the digital euro would "provide European consumers with a simple and safe digital payment option, free for basic use, that covers all their payment needs everywhere in the euro area while ensuring their privacy," as well as "protect European merchants from excessive charges imposed by international card schemes and put them in a stronger position to negotiate fees."