The ECB really wants a CBDC and seems willing to conflate same with crypto to get one.
From Reuters, January 24:
Euro zone banks need a digital euro to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's push to promote stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar, European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone said on Friday.
Trump said he would "promote the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide" as part of a broader crypto strategy that he sketched out in an executive order issued on Thursday.
Cipollone said this would help lure even more customers away from banks and strengthen the case for the ECB to launch its own digital currency in response."I guess the key word here (in Trump's executive order) is worldwide," Cipollone told a conference in Frankfurt. "This solution, you all know, further disintermediates banks as they lose fees, they lose clients...That's why we need a digital euro."....
....MUCH MORE
You could probably use any string of words as a preface and get an ECB board member to append "That's why we need a digital euro." to it.
