36 payment providers will test the digital euro
The ECB picked 36 firms from more than 50 applicants for the digital euro pilot. It starts in the second half of 2027 and runs for twelve months. Issuance is possible from 2029 at the earliest, and only if the law is in place by then.
The European Central Bank has selected 36 payment service providers to test the digital euro. More than 50 firms applied; the selection was announced on 14 July 2026. Nineteen national central banks in the euro area are taking part. Bulgaria and Malta are not among them.
Who is taking part
The selected firms include large banks such as Deutsche Bank and UniCredit, alongside payment companies including Revolut, Adyen and Stripe. The mix is deliberate: established banks that run millions of accounts, next to firms used to rolling out new payment methods quickly. Applications were submitted in March 2026.
What is actually being tested
The pilot begins in the second half of 2027 and runs for twelve months. It tests a beta version in real-life situations: paying in shops, paying between individuals, online and offline. The ECB will look at robustness, ease of use, scalability, the technical infrastructure, operational processes and the user experience.
The offline part is the most interesting piece. A payment that works without an internet connection is technically awkward, and it is exactly what cash can do and a debit card cannot. Whether it runs smoothly in practice is what the pilot has to show.
No interest, but a holding limit
On the design the ECB is clear: the digital euro pays no interest, and there will be a cap on how much you can hold. That cap exists to stop savings moving en masse from bank accounts to the central bank, which would hit banks' funding. For consumers the basic service will be free, offered through supervised payment service providers.
And the digital euro will not replace cash. Christine Lagarde put it this way: cash and the digital euro will both be legal tender, which means nowhere in Europe can someone say they are not taking your banknotes.
The law is not there yet
This is the part most coverage buries. Parliament, the Council and the Commission are still negotiating the Regulation. The ECB has said explicitly that it will only decide to issue once that Regulation has been adopted. Formal approval is planned for 2027; a first issuance could then follow in 2029 at the earliest.
So the pilot is not a launch. It is a test that has to be finished by the time the politics is settled, so that another two years of building do not follow after it.
What this means for you
For anyone in crypto, the digital euro is not a competitor to bitcoin, but it is a competitor to euro stablecoins. A free digital euro issued by the central bank, with legal tender status, covers exactly the use you would now reach for EURC or EURCV for when paying in the real economy. For trading on an exchange little changes, because there what counts is availability on the venue, not legal tender status.
In practice: nothing is likely to change about your day-to-day payments before 2029, and the intervening years will mainly decide whether banks and payment apps build something useful out of this.
Sources: European Central Bank (digital euro pilot page and FAQ, selection announced 14 July 2026), Euronews, 14 July 2026. Last checked: 4 August 2026.