Europe’s Crypto Pivot: ETH & SOL in the Running for Digital Euro

🇪🇺 Ethereum and Solana now in the running for digital Euro

The EU just got a wake-up call from Washington.

After U.S. lawmakers passed the GENIUS Act, giving full legal clarity to dollar-backed stablecoins, Europe is scrambling to keep the euro relevant in crypto.

The new U.S. law essentially formalizes the $288B stablecoin market dominated by Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT and sends a clear message: The dollar is now crypto-native.

The Financial Times reports that once the bill passed Congress, panic set in across EU corridors. ECB officials, who had been dragging their feet on the digital euro, suddenly hit acceleration.

Until now, the plan was to launch a closed, private, ECB-controlled coin, similar to China’s CBDC model. But that’s shifting. In a major about-face, Ethereum and Solana are now being considered as the base infrastructure for the euro’s blockchain experiment.

🧠 Why it matters:

• Public chains = global scale. If the EU wants its coin used outside Europe, it needs Ethereum or Solana-level reach.

• Privacy concerns are being reevaluated. For years, public chains were a no-go for central banks. Not anymore.

• Dollar dominance is real. U.S. banks are prepping their own tokens. The EU sees this as a direct threat to its monetary sovereignty.

🧱 Ethereum and Solana now in the conversation

The ECB told FT it’s reviewing “both centralized and decentralized systems,” and explicitly named DLTs like Ethereum and Solana. That was unthinkable just a year ago.

Until now, the largest euro-backed stablecoin was Circle’s EURC and it’s only $225M. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to USDT and USDC. If the EU doesn’t act, it risks losing the stablecoin war before it ever steps onto the battlefield.

Even ECB board member Piero Cipollone warned earlier this year that U.S. crypto adoption could shift euro deposits overseas and cement the dollar as the default digital money.

📌 TL;DR:

• The U.S. just gave stablecoins full legal clarity.

• Europe is rushing to respond and Ethereum and Solana are now being explored for a public blockchain-based euro.

• This isn’t just a technical choice. It’s about sovereignty in a world where money moves at internet speed.

The Federal Reserve just hit “pause” for the fifth straight time and now we know why.

Fresh data shows inflation may be rising again. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that the PCE inflation index. The Fed’s go-to inflation tracker came in hotter than expected for June.

• PCE inflation rose 0.3% in June (vs. 0.1% in May)

• Core PCE, which strips out food and energy, also climbed 0.3%

• Year-over-year, core PCE hit 2.8%, edging higher from 2.7% in May

That jump in prices came just a day after the Fed left rates unchanged, keeping its target between 4.25% and 4.5%.

Policymakers have been signaling they want more time to observe the economy and this new data gives them even more reason to hold steady. Inflation isn’t cooling like it was earlier in the year, especially in services like rent, travel, and healthcare, where prices rose 3.5% YoY.

What happens when rates stay high?

• Borrowing money stays expensive (loans, mortgages)

• Savings earn better returns

• Crypto and stocks may slow down

Higher rates are designed to cool inflation but they can also slow down the broader economy.

Trump vs Powell: The tariff tension

As the numbers dropped, Donald Trump reignited his public feud with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, calling him “TOO LATE, TOO POLITICAL” on Truth Social and blaming him for hurting the U.S. economy.

While the post was classic Trump, the underlying issue is real: the Fed is carefully watching how Trump’s aggressive new tariff policies are affecting inflation and growth. Powell said Wednesday that the Fed will “wait and see” how trade policy unfolds but warned that if the job market weakens or prices surge further, they’re ready to act fast.

Gold glitters as markets worry

With inflation creeping back up and rate cuts now further off, investors moved into safe havens.

• Gold jumped 1%, hitting $3,308/oz one of its highest levels this quarter

• Spot gold and futures both gained, reflecting inflation hedging behavior

• Crypto paused, with Bitcoin trading just above $112K after falling from recent highs

Even as the Fed holds its stance, the market’s message is clear: the road ahead may not be smooth. And Powell’s next move or Trump’s next policy jab could send ripples through both traditional markets and digital assets.

• US bond market stuck, but dollar traders bet Powell won’t blink at Jackson Hole

• Bitcoin’s volatility vanishes, sending risk-hungry traders to other assets

• Insider trading in Kanye’s YZY as 13 wallets made over $24M dumping token

• 2 Bitcoin pools now control 51% of the hash power: Is BTC at risk?

• Elon Musk reached out to Zuckerberg as unlikely ally in $97B OpenAI bid

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