Christine Lagarde’s Early Exit: ECB Leadership Shifts, Digital Euro Stalled

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For the European crypto sector, this succession concerns two issues in particular: the digital euro, which Christine Lagarde supported during her mandate, and the position of the ECB towards private cryptocurrencies.

The outgoing president will leave office several months before the planned launch of the digital euro pilot. The ECB schedules this exercise for the second half of 2027, for a period of twelve months.

The objective is to test an experimental version in concrete situations, notably in-store payments and transfers between individuals. The institution selected 36 payment service providers to participate in the trials.

The calendar aims to prepare for a possible first issue in 2029, in the event that the European regulation is adopted in 2026. The ECB specifies, however, that it will only decide to issue this currency after the adoption of the legislative framework. This deadline therefore constitutes a conditional objective, not a guaranteed launch date.

The departure of Christine Lagarde does not, in itself, allow us to conclude that there will be a postponement. The work is carried out by the Eurosystem, while the European Parliament and the Council are involved in the adoption of the regulation. The ECB also indicates that its preparation must remain adaptable to the legislative process.

Christine Lagarde also leaves a series of critical positions towards cryptocurrencies. In May 2022, on the Dutch show College Tour, she presented them as highly speculative and risky, believing that they were worthless due to the lack of an underlying asset serving as collateral.

In January 2025, she also affirmed her conviction that Bitcoin would not enter the reserves of central banks members of the General Council of the ECB. This statement expressed a position on the management of reserves; it did not constitute a general ban on Bitcoin in Europe.

The designation of his successor belongs to the European Council, united in its composition including the countries of the euro zone. It decides by reinforced qualified majority, on the recommendation of the Council of the European Union, after consultation of the European Parliament and the Governing Council of the ECB. The press release announcing the departure does not name any candidate.

The succession thus opens a period of transition at the head of the ECB, without announcing any change in doctrine on cryptocurrencies. The digital euro retains its conditional timetable, and its future depends on collective, technical and legislative decisions that go beyond the sole presidency of the institution. What will Christine Lagarde do now? Response expected in the coming weeks, but some are already attributing political projects to him...

Machine-translated from French