The European Central Bank will reconsider its cooperation with any national central bank that decides to add Bitcoin to its reserves. ECB board member Piero Cipollone stated this in an interview with Reuters.

According to him, in such cases, the regulator would have to reassess the terms of REPO agreements and swap lines. However, he emphasized that no central bank in the Eurozone currently plans to integrate the first cryptocurrency.

“We will conduct an assessment if this happens,” Cipollone noted, adding that Bitcoin is unsuitable as a reserve asset and remains a speculative instrument.

“It has no intrinsic value, no underlying asset to support it, and no earnings model. The only rationale for buying it is the belief that its price will always rise,” he explained.

In January, it became known that the Czech National Bank was exploring the possibility of diversifying its reserves by including Bitcoin. Although the country is not part of the Eurozone, it is a member of the EU.

Cipollone also rejected comparisons between Bitcoin and gold, despite their shared characteristics of scarcity and use as a store of value. He pointed out that gold has industrial and commercial utility, whereas BTC does not.

Digital Euro and Stablecoin Competition

The ECB board member expressed concern about the growing role of stablecoins in payments, particularly USD-pegged USDT and USDC. He believes their widespread adoption in Europe could lead to capital outflows to the U.S.

Meanwhile, the ECB’s digital euro project is primarily positioned as a tool for retail payments. The regulator is considering innovative features, such as conditional transfers that execute automatically when specific conditions are met.

Cipollone emphasized that the development of the CBDC is progressing on schedule, and the process of establishing its regulatory framework has accelerated following the European Parliament elections.

“The fact that the U.S. president is actively promoting stablecoins globally is clearly a signal,” he added.

Reminder: Donald Trump has banned the development of a CBDC in the U.S. and established a cryptocurrency task force. Its focus includes assessing the idea of a national Bitcoin reserve and developing regulations for digital assets, including stablecoins.