EU Council agreed on a position establishing the digital euro framework, which would allow payments and money transfers with a high degree of privacy and includes provisions on strengthening the role of cash.

SWIFT moves its CBDC Connector from sandbox to production, with 12 central banks and 5 commercial banks including Citi and Deutsche Bank successfully settling cross-border trades using Digital Euro alongside Digital Pound and tokenized deposits.

~$750 million worth of tokenized EUR now exists onchain, up from ~$100 million in January 2023, as startups tokenize euro ahead of official 2029 launch.

Lawmakers in France and Germany push to ban CBDCs and favor Bitcoin instead, representing significant regulatory opposition to the digital euro rollout.

Digital euro planned for 2029 will operate independently of Visa and Mastercard payment networks.

EU accelerates the preparatory phase of development, with full rollout aimed for 2029 according to Christine Lagarde.

Launch date now planned for 2030, with software development costs disclosed at EUR 1.3 billion.

ECB sets 2027 as launch date for digital euro pilot program.

ECB sets 2029 as potential launch date for digital euro.

French lawmaker Éric Ciotti proposes Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill opposing EU's centralized digital euro, though the UDR party holds only 16 of 577 parliamentary seats making passage unlikely.

ECB assessment concludes digital euro will cost less than anticipated and poses no harm or risk to financial stability.

ECB pursues regulatory pressure on stablecoins as competitive strategy, following pattern of PSD/PSD2 regulations, while mischaracterizing stablecoins as financial rather than technology business.

Digital euro phase 1 launches October 2024 with 3-year implementation, featuring smart contracts enabling account freezes and money expiration.

ECB to make final decision on digital euro launch by October 2025, announces ECB President Lagarde.