According to Finance Feeds, European Central Bank President Lagarde stated at the ECB meeting that Europe is facing the risk of losing payment sovereignty, with US dollar stablecoins and foreign networks dominating financial infrastructure. Lagarde pointed out that the International Card Organization accounts for over 60% of European card payments, and 13 out of 21 eurozone countries no longer have national card schemes. Lagarde stated that the digital euro can break this situation as its legal tender status must be accepted throughout Europe. Lagarde emphasized that tokenized finance requires central bank currency for safe expansion, and market participants have stated that without central bank settlement infrastructure, there would be no large-scale issuance of digital assets.
