Fritzi Köhler-Geib: Exploring the future of finance - digital euro, crypto assets, and the quest for digital sovereignty

Keynote speech by Dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) "Future of payments forum", Frankfurt am Main, 4 December 2025.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
11 December 2025
by Dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib
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  |  10 pages

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1 Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen,

Crypto assets have been a major talking point ever since Donald Trump ran for office as the "crypto president". But I was very interested in this topic even before that. 

You see, in my previous role as Lead Economist and Programme Leader for Central America at the World Bank, my remit also covered El Salvador at the time of the then new President Nayib Bukele's inauguration. That's why I followed El Salvador's "Bitcoin experiment" in 2021 with great interest – it had decided to become the first country in the world to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender.

Just three years later, in 2024, El Salvador bowed to pressure from the IMF and responded to the weak demand by abolishing the obligation for merchants to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment. Just 1.3 % of money transfers between September 2021 and June 2024 were made in crypto assets.

Today, as a central banker, I'm revisiting this topic from a different vantage point. Current geopolitical fragmentation and technological progress are impacting the financial architecture, markets, and instruments. This affects how we, as a central bank, are able to fulfill our mandate. That is why, with the "future of finance," we are establishing a new research focus, which also looks at the impact of stablecoins and digital currencies. 

I would like to explore this topic with you based on the following three key questions:

  • What kind of geopolitical and economic environment are we operating in and what role does digitalisation play?

  • How are these developments affecting financial market structures, architecture and instruments?

  • What is our response as a central bank?

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of the BIS.