The European Central Bank (ECB) has said that the first phase of the creation of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) should focus on e-commerce and peer-to-peer payments before moving on to the other use cases, crypto media outlet Watcher.Guru reported on February 24.

The digital euro project team's PowerPoint, developed for a meeting on Wednesday, listed other use cases for the e-euro, such as paying taxes, using it to pay in real establishments, and getting welfare payouts. According to the paper, the first focus would be on peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce. CBDCs are gaining popularity across the world, with numerous countries undertaking pilot testing.

Notably, the ECB has shown a hesitant stance toward the cryptocurrency industry, sending a warning to eurozone nations in July 2022 about the hazards of regulators getting ahead of the Regulation of Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which isn't slated to take effect until 2024.

Lately, ECB supervisors suggested that banks in the European Union (EU) begin imposing limits on Bitcoin (BTC) holdings before the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) global regulatory framework becomes legally binding, citing potential risks from crypto assets spilling over into the banking sector.

Source: FINBOLD