US stablecoins Vs Digital Euro -

US and Europe has regulated their digital assets in different way.

US, has regulated this space of the market and is enabling private competition to thrive (and die), while Europe is issuing directly the digital euro.

The US is betting on regulated private competition (through Genius Act ), while Europe issuing directly digital euros, building a sovereign public infrastructure.

Ultimate purpose? survive,

Looks like the US is pursuing to keep the dollar dominant, while Europe is looking to protect its financial independence.

Different approaches in their genesis

The US approach enables the Stablecoins to be issued in a faster way (they are available right now), competition for getting big in this new competitive space is making a lot of players (from end-user companies to basic infrastructure) to be investing hard to become a relevant player.

They have drastically changed their approach, before the approach was different: initially the approach was the Fed was going to issue the US Digital Dollar as a CBDC.

But they have moved fast, some private iniciatives that are there from years and a quick and clear legislation is making US to “move first” fast. Today the stablecoins are mainly used to protect from bear markets in the crypto space, and despite this is a small amount (taking into account the volumes of the monetary base), the USDC is a reality.

Europe now has launched 2 projects: Pontes and Appia.

Project Pontes (“bridge”) – short term

It acts as a technical “bridge” (hence the Latin name Pontes) between modern blockchain platforms and the ECB’s traditional settlement system (TARGET Services), they are launching a pilot to be used in Q3 2026. This pilot will allow banks to settle trades of tokenized assets (like digital bonds) using “cash tokens”—a wholesale form of central bank money.

Project Appia (The “Road”) – Long-term

Named after the Via Appia (the great Roman trade road), this is the ECB’s vision for a complete European Shared Ledger. Instead of just “bridging” old and new systems, Appia aims to create a single, unified digital platform where central bank money, commercial bank money (tokenized deposits), and digital assets all coexist. It is the roadmap for a fully tokenized European capital market.It’s still not clear how this will be done, the launch of a paper is scheduled for mid-2026.

Here again the approach with US is different; in US private companies under Genius Act and Clarity Act can provide that infrastructure.

Some questions to when volumes will gain presence in this space:

In one side of the Atlantic sea:

What will happen if some of these private companies bankrupt or lose their liquidity?
Will the Central bank rescue them?
Which ones will be “to big to fail” in this category?

In the other side:

Will they get enough volume?
Will they be used as a mechanism to grant subsidies?

US stablecoins Vs Digital Euro