There is nothing more insignificant than buying a sandwich or renting a holiday home in Spain. Nobody worries about how money changes hands between the seller and the buyer, or who the intermediaries are. Behind these transactions, however, a power struggle is playing out between Europe and the United States: although payments may be made in euros, the overwhelming majority are processed by American companies, led by Visa and Mastercard. And they are becoming a weapon of choice in the geopolitical battle being waged by the world’s major powers.

An illustration of this dependence on the part of European citizens: for the past ten months, the Frenchman Nicolas Guillou, a judge at the International Criminal Court, has been unable to make bank payments via Visa and Mastercard. His offence? Issuing arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. Like other judges, Nicolas Guillou has thus been subjected to sanctions by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

This is a real setback, given that Mastercard and Visa handle two-thirds of card payments in Europe, as well as all cross-border transactions. Punitive measures against a few individuals can easily be extended to affect an entire country: in early June, Cuba was thus excluded from the Visa and Mastercard networks, once again as a result of US sanctions. These diplomatic incidents reinforce Europeans’ determination to take back control of their monetary destiny. What would happen if Washington decided – as it did on 12 June with regard to the most advanced artificial intelligence models – to restrict access to the payment systems it controls?

‘American tithe’

MEPs are therefore set to approve, first in the Economic Affairs Committee on 23 June and then in plenary session in early July, the creation of a digital euro that can be used by individuals and businesses for everyday payments, alongside cash. “It is a European means of payment developed by Europeans for Europeans,” summarises Alexandre Stervinou, head of payment systems at the Banque de France.

In practical terms, everyone will need to set up a digital euro wallet, either by depositing cash into it or transferring funds from their bank account. Payments will then be made using a chip card or a mobile phone. The experience will therefore be quite similar to what we are used to today. The difference is that the money will come directly from the European Central Bank (ECB), rather than from a commercial bank.

As well as reducing our dependence on the United States, this digital currency should enable payments to be made more quickly and cheaply than at present. This is because Visa and Mastercard charge retailers a small fortune – in the region of 2 billion euros a year across Europe. “All European consumer spending is subject to an American levy, and nobody bats an eyelid!” sums up a senior official in Brussels.

Banks that are not impartial

Can the digital euro reverse the trend? Scepticism prevails, at least for the time being: firstly, because it will not be introduced until 2029, and is therefore coming far too late to counter US hegemony. Secondly, because European consumers already have numerous payment methods at their disposal (cash, bank cards, bank transfers, cheques, Apple Pay, etc.) and do not necessarily feel the need to adopt a new one.

“The advent of a new payment method is a once-in-a-century event. Cheques became widespread during the Renaissance, chip cards in the 20th century, and mobile and contactless payments at the start of the 21st century. These developments require gradual adoption: Europeans cannot widely adopt every innovation, however revolutionary it may be,” adds Pierre Fersztand.

Banks are not entirely impartial, as they are themselves promoting their own commercial solution, called ‘Wero’, which enables instant money transfers between friends and will soon be extended to online shopping. According to them, the ECB, which is leading the digital euro project, is not necessarily best placed to develop disruptive technologies to compete with Apple Pay, WeChat and Alipay. The only country to have launched a public digital currency is China, with the aim, in particular, of monitoring its citizens – a point several French bankers note with irony.

US President Donald Trump, for his part, is taking the exact opposite approach. He has passed an initial law prohibiting the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) from issuing digital dollars. He has enacted a second – the Genius Act – to encourage private sector players to take the lead by developing digital assets backed by the dollar. These aptly named ‘stablecoins’ are nothing like other cryptocurrencies, which fluctuate wildly and can cause their holders to lose fortunes. They can be pegged to any currency, such as the euro or the yuan. But it is dollar-denominated stablecoins that are flooding the globe: they account for 98 per cent of global trading volumes.

Highly resistant

The risk is obviously not that we will buy our baguettes with dollar-pegged stablecoins, but that global trade will be conducted, even more so than today, in US currency, thereby giving Washington new levers of influence over the rest of the world. For a century now, the ‘king dollar’ has made it possible for the US to impose its own rules across the globe – measures of extraterritoriality that go beyond those of other powers. ‘Let 1,000 stablecoins flourish; it’s good for the dollar, it’s good for the country,’ declared the US President when presenting the bill. Growth is already exponential: transactions in stablecoins have soared by 72 per cent in 2025, to 33,000 billion dollars (28,800 billion euros), and now exceed the volumes processed by Visa and Mastercard, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Among those most interested are multinationals that transfer money between different parts of the world, and which currently often have to wait several days to do so. High-net-worth households are another target: “Stablecoins are particularly attractive for large purchases, as there are no spending limits. This is handy for buying a yacht, for example. Luxury brands such as Chanel and Hermès will also be tempted to offer this payment method to their customers,” says an industry expert.

The company that issues the most stablecoins in Europe is called Circle, and it is based in New York. In a sign of American initiative, the CEO, Jeremy Allaire, was in Paris on 16 June to approach new partners who might distribute ‘his’ currency. “European banks were very reluctant at first. We now have several working with us, and others will follow suit,” he tells Le Monde.

However, even on the Old Continent, it is dollar-denominated holdings that dominate, he acknowledges: Circle manages 5.5 billion across Europe, which is 17 times more than those denominated in euros. Does he believe it is possible to break this American quasi-monopoly? “I am convinced that in Europe, euro-denominated stablecoins will become more significant than those backed by the dollar,” he explains. Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions, wealthy households living in countries with weak currencies (Brazil, Argentina, etc.) will also be tempted to buy euro-denominated stablecoins to ensure the stability of their assets and avoid being entirely dependent on the dollar. “The role of the euro could grow: more and more countries will opt for global currencies at the expense of local ones,” insists Jeremy Allaire. As with previous technological revolutions (the internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc.), Europe will have to make up for several years of lag behind America.