Share this article
Italian Payments Giant Nexi Says It Is ‘Contributing’ to Design of Digital Euro
“We are starting to talk about a new version of cash,” Nexi’s CEO said. “That’s why we are engaging with the ECB.”
Updated May 11, 2023, 3:49 p.m. Published Sep 24, 2021, 8:08 a.m.
The head of Italian payments giant Nexi says his company is “engaging” with the European Central Bank (ECB) and “contributing” to the design of the bloc’s digital euro.
Speaking at the Money 20/20 conference on Thursday, Nexi CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo told CNBC’s Karen Tso a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could be a “force” in the evolution of digital payments.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“We are starting to talk about a new version of cash,” Bertoluzzo said. “That’s why we are engaging with the ECB.”
In July, the ECB said it would move to the exploration phase of its plans to develop a digital euro. Earlier this month, Jurgen Schaaf, an adviser to the ECB, said the two-year investigation period was not a confirmation that the plans would go ahead.
In the meantime, China has forged ahead with its digital yuan. In August, the digital yuan was used in the domestic futures market for the first time following multiple other test runs.
The U.S. has fallen behind China and the European Union, and has yet to consider exploring a digital dollar for its domestic and global markets. A U.S. report from the Federal Reserve on the benefits of CBDCs is expected sometime later this month.
Read more: Bank of America Calls CBDCs ‘More Effective’ Than Cash in Research Note
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Stripe-Backed Blockchain Tempo Starts Testnet; Kalshi, Mastercard, UBS Added as Partners
Tempo, built by Stripe and Paradigm, has started testing payment-focused blockchain and has onboard a slew of institutional partners.
What to know:
- Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain has launched its public testnet for real-world payment testing.
- Kalshi, Klarna, Mastercard and UBS are among a wave of new institutional partners now involved in the project.
- Tempo aims to offer low-cost, fast-settlement infrastructure for global payments as stablecoin adoption is accelerating globally.
Top Stories
