Crypto: What’s Next For Crypto In Europe After Christine Lagarde Steps Down?

ECB president Christine Lagarde is a crypto skeptic, but her likely successors are no more enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies.

European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde is stepping down sometime before the French presidential election next year.

Under her leadership, the ECB has consulted on the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation that defined the crypto landscape in the European Union. The preeminent European bank also began work on the digital euro — the next iteration of the Eurozone’s currency.

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

While the exact timing of Lagarde’s departure has not yet been determined, observers are already speculating about who will take her place and how it will affect crypto policy in Europe.

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

She said that crypto should be regulated, citing concern that investors did not understand the risks associated with crypto investing and would “lose it all.”

This set the tone for the ECB consultations on MiCA that would follow. The ECB itself does not create laws, but throughout the legislative process, the ECB advised, observed and offered comments, particularly over areas related to monetary policy and payments regulations.

Even after MiCA was passed, Lagarde advocated for tight regulations on stablecoins and aligning international standards. In September 2025, she called on lawmakers in Europe to provide safeguards for stablecoins 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 supported by robust equivalence regimes in other jurisdictions and safeguards relating to the transfer of assets between the EU and non-EU entities,” she said.

Source: CoinTelegraph