European Central Financial institution (ECB) president Christine Lagarde is stepping down someday earlier than the French presidential election subsequent 12 months.
Beneath her management, the ECB has consulted on the Markets in Crypto Property (MiCA) laws that outlined the crypto panorama within the European Union. The preeminent European financial institution additionally started work on the digital euro — the subsequent iteration of the Eurozone’s foreign money.
However there may be nonetheless work to be carried out on crypto coverage in Europe. MiCA doesn’t, in its present kind, regulate decentralized finance (DeFi), and policymakers on the ECB are nonetheless deliberating over the digital euro’s closing particulars.
Whereas the precise timing of Lagarde’s departure has not but been decided, observers are already speculating about who will take her place and the way it will have an effect on crypto coverage in Europe.
Lagarde was a crypto-skeptic, important of stablecoins
Like many central bankers, Lagarde has been cautious at greatest in relation to cryptocurrencies. In 2022, she mentioned concerning crypto, “My very humble evaluation is that it’s value nothing.”
“It’s based mostly on nothing … There is no such thing as a underlying asset to behave as an anchor of security.”
She mentioned that crypto ought to be regulated, citing concern that buyers didn’t perceive the dangers related to crypto investing and would “lose all of it.”
This set the tone for the ECB consultations on MiCA that might comply with. The ECB itself doesn’t create legal guidelines, however all through the legislative course of, the ECB suggested, noticed and provided feedback, significantly over areas associated to financial coverage and funds laws.
Even after MiCA was handed, Lagarde advocated for tight laws on stablecoins and aligning worldwide requirements. In September 2025, she referred to as on lawmakers in Europe to offer safeguards for stablecoins and equivalence for overseas stablecoin issuers to forestall the chance of stablecoin runs.
“European laws ought to be certain that such schemes can’t function within the EU until supported by strong equivalence regimes in different jurisdictions and safeguards regarding the switch of belongings between the EU and non-EU entities,” she mentioned.
“This additionally highlights why worldwide cooperation is indispensable. With out a degree world taking part in discipline, dangers will all the time search the trail of least resistance.”
She additional said that stablecoins are a menace to nationwide sovereignty and switch cash from a public good right into a privately managed enterprise.
“When stablecoins are left unchecked, we threat making a system by which cash is managed by the non-public sector. That’s not the mandate we had been appointed to function public servants.”
Demand for digital money and the euro
Whereas a famous crypto skeptic, Lagarde acknowledged the demand for digital currencies again in 2021. In an interview that 12 months on the World Financial Discussion board, Lagarde mentioned, “If clients desire to make use of digital currencies fairly than have banknotes and money accessible, it ought to be accessible.”
“We should always reply to that demand and have an answer that’s European based mostly, that’s safe, that’s accessible, and pleasant phrases that can be utilized as a way of cost.” On the ECB degree, this response took the type of the digital euro.
However the wheels of Brussels don’t flip shortly. The investigation section for a digital euro started all the way in which again in October 2021. In October 2025, the ECB accomplished the preparation section when its governing council determined to start out making ready for issuance.
The digital euro has confronted harsh criticism, particularly that it’ll give central banks one more instrument to watch shopper conduct, management spending and eradicate nameless transactions. There have additionally been considerations over offline operability and overreliance on digital programs.
The ECB claims that the digital euro could have strict privateness requirements and that it’ll deliver all the identical advantages of money to the digital financial area. In October 2025, Lagarde mentioned that the ECB needs to make the euro “match for the long run, redesigning and modernising our banknotes and making ready for the issuance of digital money.”
Her colleague, ECB govt board member Piero Cipollone, iterated that the digital euro “will be certain that individuals get pleasure from the advantages of money additionally within the digital period. In doing so, it’ll improve the resilience of Europe’s cost panorama, decrease prices for retailers, and create a platform for personal firms to innovate, scale up and compete.”
New ECB frontrunners unlikely to depart from cautious stance
Lagarde’s resolution to step down comes at a politically fraught time. Leaving earlier than the subsequent French presidential election will enable President Emmanuel Macron to take part in selecting her substitute.
France is the second-largest economic system within the EU, and in line with Reuters, no ECB president has been picked and not using a nod from Paris.
The correct-wing Nationwide Rally has been ascendant within the polls not too long ago, whereas Macron has failed to supply secure governance, with seven totally different prime ministers serving beneath his tenure. Nationwide Rally president Jordan Bardella claims that, in selecting a brand new ECB president, Macron would be capable of train affect past the tip of his official time period.
In keeping with the Monetary Occasions, the present frontrunners to exchange Lagarde are former Spanish central financial institution governor Pablo Hernández de Cos and former Dutch central financial institution governor Klaas Knot.
In 2022, Hernández de Cos mentioned at a Financial institution of Worldwide Settlements (BIS) convention that crypto can “pose extremely important dangers which might be exhausting to grasp and measure, even for probably the most skilled brokers.”
He referred to as for a strong regulatory framework to transition crypto from “that hyperbolic ‘Wild West’ delusion to a extra fascinating orderly ‘railroad of civilisation.’”
Knot has been equally cautious. Talking earlier than the BIS in 2024, he acknowledged the attainable advantages of sure facets of blockchain expertise.
Associated: How euro stablecoins might handle EU’s greenback considerations
“Making a digital illustration of an asset and putting it on a distributed ledger might deliver advantages to the monetary system. This consists of effectivity features and doubtlessly elevated liquidity of sure belongings. After all, there can also be dangers for monetary stability.”
Nonetheless, he confused the regulators had been assessing the implications these applied sciences would have on broader monetary stability, stating that, “We can’t presume that this innovation, and doubtlessly extra decentralization, will deliver important advantages to the worldwide monetary system.”
In June 2025, he addressed stablecoins particularly. Knot mentioned that whether or not the subsequent type of cash comes through stablecoins or already established cost networks “ought to be one thing we’re agnostic on.”
Whereas impartial on the way of expertise supporting monetary innovation, he mentioned that “fostering innovation should not come on the expense of stability.”
Whereas usually criticized for the glacial tempo of progress, the EU managed to go a complete crypto framework sooner than the way more crypto-friendly United States. This framework included steering and enter from a crypto-cautious central financial institution, with a skeptic on the helm.
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