The first is called Pontus. It launches in September 2026, and it links distribu...

…The retail use case is weak. But that's because retail was never the point. The digital euro isn't about replacing your debit card, it's about owning the rails of tokenized finance before private dollar stable coins do. The ECB is building two pieces of infrastructure that almost nobody on crypto Twitter is paying attention to. The first is called Pontus. It launches in September 2026, and it links distributed ledger platforms directly to the ECB's target settlement system. To put it simply, it lets tokenized assets settle in central bank money instead of USDT or USDC. The second is called Appia, targeting full implementation by 2028. A roadmap for a fully interoperable European tokenized financial ecosystem. And the retail digital euro pilot kicks off in the second half of 2027 with a full launch targeted for 2029. ECB board member Piero Cipollone said it bluntly in March, "Without tokenized central bank money,…