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German central bank chief sees merit in euro stablecoins, but CBDC remains in focus

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German central bank chief sees merit in euro stablecoins, but CBDC remains in focus

German central bank president Joachim Nagel said he sees “merit in euro-denominated stablecoins,” and argues that they could serve as a cheaper and more efficient means for cross-border payments by both firms and individuals.

Summary

  • German central bank president Joachim Nagel said euro-denominated stablecoins can serve as a means for low-cost cross-border payments.
  • He said the Bundesbank has completed significant exploratory work on a potential wholesale CBDC.

During his speech at the New Year’s Reception of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany in Frankfurt, Nagel, who leads the Deutsche Bundesbank, added that the EU is “working hard on the introduction of the digital euro.”

“This will be the first pan-European retail digital payment solution, based solely on European infrastructures,” he added.

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However, he did not elaborate on how euro-denominated stablecoins would be regulated within the European Union’s existing legal framework, nor clarify how they would interact with the planned digital euro or broader monetary policy architecture.

In separate comments made last week, Nagel cautioned that if US dollar-denominated stablecoins were to gain significantly larger market share than a euro-pegged alternative, European monetary policy “could be severely impaired,” and the continent’s sovereignty could be weakened.

Nagel, who has long maintained a cautious and skeptical stance toward unbacked cryptocurrencies, has instead advocated the use of a state-backed digital euro, which he believes “will play a role in future resilience” for Europe.

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According to him, the central bank has already “accomplished important exploratory work on the possible introduction of a wholesale CBDC.” A wholesale CBDC, he said, would allow financial institutions to make “programmable payments” in central bank money.

Elsewhere in the U.S., there has been a lot of momentum around stablecoin, and the market has been expanding at a rapid pace on the back of demand for dollar-equivalent settlement layers, especially after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025.

But policy deadlock around a key market structure bill has stalled progress and divided crypto industry and banking stakeholders over issues such as stablecoin yield and reward mechanisms.

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Crypto World

Venus Protocol Hit by Code Exploit, Causing Over $3.7 Million In Losses

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Cybersecurity, Hacks

Venus Protocol, a decentralized lending and borrowing platform, said on Sunday it had detected suspicious trading activity in the liquidity pool for the Thena (THE) token, the native cryptocurrency of the Thena decentralized finance platform.

The unusual trading activity only affected pools for the Cake (CAKE) token, the native cryptocurrency of the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange, and the Thena token, according to an announcement from Venus Protocol. The Venus team said:

“As we continue to investigate the unusual activity in the THE pool, we are taking precautionary action by pausing all THE borrows and withdrawals effective immediately, to prevent any further misuse. This will remain in effect until the investigation is concluded.”

Cybersecurity, Hacks
Source: Venus Protocol

The suspicious trading activity is suspected to be a supply cap attack that was executed in two phases: a steady accumulation of about 84% of the total THE token market cap, coupled with a lending attack, according Allez Labs, which was identified by Venus Protocol as its risk manager.

The Venus exploiter used the Theta token as collateral to borrow 6.67 million CAKE tokens, 1.58 million USDC (USDC), 2,801 BNB (BNB) — the native token of the BNB chain — and 20 Bitcoin (BTC), Allez Labs said. 

Out of caution, withdrawals and borrowing for other tokens, which have low liquidity on the platform, were also temporarily halted, Allez Labs said. The total amount lost in the attack is now over $3.7 million, according to Wu Blockchain. 

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At the time of publication, THE was trading at $0.2255 apiece, down more than 17% in the last 24 hours, according to pricing data on CoinMarketCap.com.

Cybersecurity, Hacks
Source: Allez Labs

Cointelegraph reached out to Venus Protocol but did not obtain a response by the time of publication.

The incident highlights the cybersecurity and code exploit threats faced by crypto users and decentralized finance platforms, as the sector grows and security threats that cause financial loss become increasingly sophisticated.

Related: February crypto losses hit lowest level since March 2025, says PeckShield

Monthly crypto losses from hacks fall in February, as attackers pivot to social engineering scams

The value lost in crypto-related hacks fell to $49 million in February, the lowest level in nearly a year, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.

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Despite the reduction in total value lost to hacks and code exploits during February, there was an uptick in phishing and social engineering scams.

Cybersecurity, Hacks
Most impactful losses from crypto scams and hacks in February 2026. Source: Nominis

“The majority of individual attacks targeted private users through phishing attacks, malicious signatures, and address poisoning scams,” according to a report from blockchain intelligence platform Nominis.

Phishing scams often use fake websites, which feature addresses that are nearly identical to legitimate domain names. These fraudulent websites have malware designed to steal private keys for cryptocurrencies or other sensitive information.

Magazine: ‘SEAL 911’ team of white hats formed to fight crypto hacks in real time