According to the source, ECB President Christine Lagarde characterized the digital euro as a symbol of trust, underscoring the policy push behind a retail CBDC in the euro area. The ECB began a two-year preparation phase in November 2023 to develop the rulebook and select providers, setting concrete delivery milestones for market participants to track (source: European Central Bank, 18 Oct 2023 press release). The European Commission filed the legislative proposal on 28 June 2023, outlining the legal framework that could reshape euro on-chain payments and regulated stablecoins across the EEA (source: European Commission, 28 June 2023 proposal). EU privacy regulators have urged strong safeguards such as offline privacy-by-design and strict data minimization, highlighting the ongoing trust-versus-control tension traders should monitor for adoption risk (source: European Data Protection Board and European Data Protection Supervisor, Joint Opinion on the digital euro proposal, 2023). In parallel, MiCA’s stablecoin regime took effect in mid-2024, driving adjustments by exchanges and issuers that can shift EUR liquidity, pairs, and spreads on crypto venues (source: European Banking Authority, 2024 MiCA implementation communications; Binance official EEA updates, 2024; Circle press release on MiCA compliance for USDC/EURC, 8 July 2024).