The European Central Bank has warned that the spread of stablecoins could eat into European banks’ retail deposits and has put forward a digital euro as a response. Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said banks that have already lost fees and transaction data to mobile payments could see their deposit base shaken. The ECB said falling deposits could weaken lending capacity and is moving ahead with a digital euro pilot planned for 2027.

JPMorgan sees the spread of permissioned blockchains as a bigger structural risk to bitcoin than Strategy’s recent bitcoin sale, as tokenisation, payments and clearing could move off public networks. It said institutions prefer permissioned networks for privacy, compliance controls, governance and legal clarity. JPMorgan also cited BIS warnings, tokenised deposits, SWIFT projects and CBDC initiatives as reinforcing regulated paths, and said public chains may be left mainly with distribution and interoperability roles.