The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, will step down some time before next year’s presidential elections in France.

Under her leadership, the ECB consulted on the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations that defined the cryptocurrency landscape in the European Union. The prominent European bank has also started work on a digital euro, the next iteration of the eurozone’s currency.

However, there is still much work to be done on crypto policy in Europe. MiCA in its current form does not regulate decentralized finance (DeFi), and policymakers at the ECB are still considering the final details of the digital euro.

Although the exact date of Lagarde’s departure has not yet been set, observers are already speculating who will take her place and how it will affect cryptocurrency policy in Europe.

Lagarde was a cryptoskeptic, critical of stablecoins

Like many central bankers, Lagarde has been cautious at best when it comes to cryptocurrencies. In 2022, she he said regarding cryptocurrencies: “My very humble assessment is that it is worth nothing.”

“It is not based on anything… There is no underlying asset that can act as a security anchor.”

She said cryptocurrencies should be regulated, citing fears that investors don’t understand the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies and will “lose everything.”

This set the tone for the subsequent ECB consultation on MiCA. The ECB itself does not create law, but throughout the legislative process the ECB advised, complied and offered comments, especially in areas related to monetary policy and payment regulations.

Even after MiCA was passed, Lagarde recommended for stringent stablecoin regulations and alignment of international standards. In September 2025, it called on lawmakers in Europe to ensure stablecoin safeguards and equivalence for foreign stablecoin issuers to prevent the risk of stablecoin runs.

“European legislation should ensure that such schemes cannot operate in the EU unless they are supported by robust equivalence regimes in other jurisdictions and safeguards relating to the transfer of assets between EU and non-EU entities,” she said.

“It also highlights why international cooperation is essential. Without a level playing field around the world, risk will always seek the path of least resistance.”

She goes on he stated that stablecoins pose a threat to national sovereignty and turn money from a public good into a privately controlled enterprise.

“When stablecoins are left unchecked, we risk creating a system where money is controlled by the private sector. This is not the mandate we are given as public officials.”

Demand for digital cash and euro

While Lagarde is a known cryptoskeptic, she admitted that there was demand for digital currencies already in 2021. In an interview this year at the World Economic Forum, Lagarde said: “If customers prefer to use digital currencies rather than having banknotes and cash on hand, they should be available.”

“We should respond to this demand and have a European solution that is safe, accessible and provides friendly conditions that can be used as a means of payment.” At the ECB level, this response took the form of a digital euro.

But the wheels of Brussels are not turning speedy. The study phase for the digital euro started already in October 2021. In October 2025, the ECB completed the preparatory phase when its Governing Council decided start preparations for broadcast.

The digital euro has faced bulky criticism because it will give central banks another tool to monitor consumer behavior, control spending and eliminate anonymous transactions. Concerns have also been raised about offline functionality and over-reliance on digital systems.

ECB claims that the digital euro will be subject to strict privacy standards and that it will bring the same benefits of cash in the digital monetary space. In October 2025, Lagarde stated that the ECB I want for the euro to “adapt to the future by redesigning and modernizing our banknotes and preparing for the issuance of digital cash.”

Her colleague, ECB board member Piero Cipollone, reiterated that the digital euro “will ensure that people enjoy the benefits of cash also in the digital age. In doing so, it will increase the resilience of the European payments landscape, lower costs for merchants and create a platform for private companies to innovate, scale and compete.”

The ECB’s fresh leaders are unlikely to deviate from their cautious stance

Lagarde’s decision to step down comes at a politically tense moment. Leaving office before the next French presidential elections will allow President Emmanuel Macron to participate in the selection of her successor.

France is the second-largest economy in the EU, and according to Reuters, there has been no ECB president yet select without a nod from Paris.

There was a Right-Wing National Congress prevailing in recent polls, while Macron has failed to deliver a stable government with seven different prime ministers portion under his term. The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, claims that Macron, by choosing the fresh president of the ECB, will be able to exert influence even after the end of his official term.

According to the Financial Times, current leaders replace Lagarde is former president of the Spanish central bank, Pablo Hernández de Cos, and former president of the Dutch central bank, Klaas Knot.

In 2022, Hernández de Cos he said a conference at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) concluded that cryptocurrencies can “pose very significant risks that are difficult for even the most experienced agents to understand and measure.”

He called for the creation of a stalwart regulatory framework to transition cryptocurrencies from “this hyperbolic “Wild West” myth to a more desirable, tidy “railroad of civilization.”

Fudge was equally cautious. Speaking before BIS in 2024, he found possible benefits of some aspects of blockchain technology.

Related: How euro stablecoins could address EU concerns over the dollar

“Creating a digital representation of assets and placing them on a distributed ledger could bring benefits to the financial system. This includes efficiency gains and potentially increased liquidity for some assets. Of course, there may also be risks to financial stability.”

Still, he stressed that regulators are assessing the impact these technologies will have on broader financial stability, saying that “we cannot assume that this innovation and potentially greater decentralization will bring significant benefits to the global financial system.”

In June 2025, he made specific reference to stablecoins. Node he said that whether the next form of money will be available through stablecoins or already existing payment networks “should be something we are agnostic about.”

While he is neutral on how technology supports financial innovation, he said that “supporting innovation cannot come at the expense of stability.”

The EU, while often criticized for its glacial pace of progress, managed to enact a comprehensive crypto framework earlier than the much more cryptocurrency-friendly United States. This framework included guidance and input from a crypto-cautious central bank, led by a skeptic.

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