The push towards a digital euro continues:

Broader geopolitics strengthen case for digital euro
20 August 2026
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/08/20/ucl-broader-geopolitics-strengthen-case-for-digital-euro.html
The ECB aims to be ready for a potential first issuance of the digital euro during 2029, assuming the digital euro Regulation is adopted in 2026. To make the technical and operational preparations and lay the groundwork for a seamless and secure launch, we expect to run a 12‑month pilot starting in the second half of 2027.
The ECB will only decide whether to issue a digital euro once the Regulation has been adopted, and the Eurosystem’s preparation work will remain flexible to ensure it stays aligned with the legislative process. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/pilot/html/index.en.html accessed 08/20/26

Note that ECB means European Central Bank.

Basically, because of actions mainly related to the USA, Europe has decided it needs to get a digital euro as well as free itself from USA connected payment systems:

Europe is building a new payment system because it has learned that financial dependence can become political submission. Wero, a bank-backed service spreading through several European markets, is the most visible part of that effort….
Europe wants ordinary commerce to continue without the permission of institutions governed elsewhere, but replacing Visa and Mastercard with a European network does not settle who will control the replacement, who can be excluded from it or what rights citizens will have when its rules turn against them. A continent unable to guarantee lawful commerce without foreign permission cannot claim full political independence, yet European ownership alone does not make a payment system democratic. Wero will show whether control over payments is being returned to European citizens through public rights, or merely transferred from foreign corporations to European banks.
The Power to Disconnect
American sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, showed how easily a decision made in Washington could enter daily life on European soil. …
European banks founded the European Payments Initiative (EPI) in 2020, before Trump’s return to the White House, but the deterioration of the transatlantic relationship gave the uneven project a sharper purpose. Iran had exposed the weakness of political opposition without independent financial channels, Russia had shown what domestic preparation could preserve, and the ICC had brought European vulnerability home.
Wero offered a practical response by moving euros directly between bank accounts without asking Visa or Mastercard to route the payment. Europe could gain a channel for ordinary commerce less exposed to unilateral US interruption. …
Wero belongs to EPI Company, a private consortium of European banks and payment firms, rather than the European Union or the European Central Bank (ECB), which is preparing the separate digital euro. …
A digital euro would be central-bank money distributed through supervised providers rather than a bank deposit moving through Wero. Proposed legal-tender status and broad acceptance could give it advantages no private network can obtain by attracting customers. …
The EU presents the digital euro and cash protection as two parts of the same settlement, creating public money for an increasingly digital economy while keeping notes and coins available and accepted. Whether cash survives as a real alternative, however, will depend on whether people can still find an ATM, withdraw money nearby and use it for ordinary purchases when branches close, shops refuse notes or electronic payments fail. …
Iran, Russia and the sanctions affecting the ICC show why Europe needs payment channels less exposed to Washington. https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/08/18/europes-new-payment-masters-the-banks-preparing-for-a-post-visa-europe/

The European Union wants financial independence from the United States and the digital euro is part of its plan to do so.

Notice the following article warning about being dependent on electronic methods of payment:

Phase Four: When the Algorithm Decides You Can’t Buy Bread (And the Infrastructure is Already Live)
August 19, 2026
The sterilization of commerce began not with prohibition but with friction. You noticed it first in the parking meter that no longer accepted coins, then in the café’s “card only” sign handwritten in marker, then in your own hesitation at handling bills that suddenly seemed suspect, unsanitary, archaic. Each instance felt minor. Aggregate them across ten years and you have witnessed the largest structural transformation of property rights in modern history without a single vote cast on the matter. …
Physical cash in circulation has declined 42% across OECD nations since 2020, with Sweden projecting complete cashlessness by 2027 and the Norwegian central bank estimating only 3% of transactions now use physical currency …
What the aggregate data obscures is the texture of elimination. When the European Central Bank published their digital euro investigation phase report in October 2023, they included a technical annex specifying “holding limits” of €3,000 per citizen and “tiered access” based on verification levels. The language was bureaucratic. The implications were feudal. In a cash-based economy, possession constitutes ownership. In the proposed architecture, access constitutes privilege—and privileges can be suspended. …
The European Union’s Digital Identity Wallet framework, scheduled for full implementation by 2027, will consolidate payment credentials, tax status, health records, and “trusted attribute attestations” in a single interoperable system. The technical standards explicitly allow for “selective disclosure”—meaning the verifier requests only specific data points for specific transactions. But the architecture enables total disclosure, and history suggests that capability becomes mandate. Today, proof of age for alcohol purchase. Tomorrow, proof of carbon quota for fuel purchase. Next year, proof of social credit standing for housing access. …
The trajectory points toward a compression event: the convergence of CBDC deployment, biometric payment mandates, and algorithmic “de-risking” creating a population bifurcation between the “verified” and the “unverified.” The verified will move through a frictionless economy of conditioned privileges—spending permissions, travel authorizations, access rights—administered in real-time. The unverified will inhabit an increasingly criminalized gray zone of cash-like substitutes: barter, cryptocurrency (where permitted), and informal credit networks subject to enhanced surveillance and punitive taxation.
The horror is not in the dystopian spectacle but in the administrative banality. No one will announce the elimination of economic autonomy. They will simply announce that cash handling is inefficient, that biometric verification prevents fraud, that programmable money enables targeted stimulus. Each announcement will be true. Each will also be a step toward the architecture of total control, where survival requires permissions granted by algorithms processing behavioral data in milliseconds, where human need is filtered through compatibility scores with policy objectives.
The final ledger is being written not in legislation but in code—immutable, distributed, and indifferent to appeal. When the last cash transaction occurs, and the central banks have announced target dates between 2027-2030 for this milestone, the distinction between money and permission will have dissolved entirely. You will not own currency. You will be granted temporary access to spending power, subject to conditions you cannot negotiate, monitored by systems you cannot see, revocable by criteria you cannot know.
This is not conspiracy. This is procurement schedule. The infrastructure is being poured. https://www.activistpost.com/phase-four-when-the-algorithm-decides-you-cant-buy-bread-and-the-infrastructure-is-already-live/

Well, before there was the structure or ability to control buying and selling, it was prophesied in the Book of Revelation, related to the coming 666 Beast power.

Notice some quotes from my December 2025 article titled 26 items to prophetically watch in 2026:

14. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and 666
Notice the following prophecy:
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:16-18)
This type of financial surveillance could not have happened during the time of the Apostle John as there was no real way to monitor many financial transactions then (despite the fact that ‘preterists’ believe this was fulfilled almost 2000 years ago, see also The Dangerous Rise of Preterists). The same was true for all the centuries that followed until the late 20th and now the 21st century. But now not only does the technology exist to monitor most financial transactions, the political will is there as well.
It will be a European power that will fulfill the above prophecy of 666 (watch Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?).
It will likely take supercomputers aided with artificial intelligence to aid in the fulfillment of the scriptures in Revelation 13:15-18, as well as cyber-spying/monitoring. I do believe that cyber monitoring will be used by the European Beast, King of the North, 666 power. …
Knowledge and monitoring of financial transactions is greatly increasing — supercomputers may be able to better monitor more economic activity as well as reverse engineer things like Bitcoin.
Europe has claimed that it will be the dominant force in cryptocurrency. A supercomputer may be able to trace all owners and users, as well as even decode blockchain technology.
The Europeans, themselves, will continue to push for a CBDC or other type of digital currency. …
While 2026 will not see a cashless world, expect to see more movements towards monitorable payments.
Expect to see more steps related to Central Bank Digital Currencies in 2026.

Biblically, we know from the following prophecy that Europe will have a controlled currency (Revelation 13:16-18).

It will be a European power that will fulfill the prophecy of 666 (watch Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?).

Europe has long been in the process of putting together what may become the enforcer of controlling buying and selling. We put together the following video related to that back in 2019:

EU Setting Up 666 Enforcer?

The European Union is in the process of establishing the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. This is a major, first-of-its-kind move, with the EU setting up a European-wide prosecutor’s office that will have power to investigate and charge people for financial crimes committed against the EU. It looks like this type of office may end up persecuting those that do not have the mark of the Beast when they “buy or sell” as that will later be considered a financial crime in Europe. What does 666 mean? How has that name be calculated? How can we be certain that this is a prophecy for Europe and not Islam? Is the appointment of this new office of significant prophetic importance? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more by pointing to scriptures, news items, and historical accounts.

Here is a link to the sermonette video: EU Setting Up 666 Enforcer?

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office officially started operations on 1 June 2021 (https://www.eppo.europa.eu/en/background).

So, there is an office to prosecute the upcoming “crimes” of making large cash of crypto payments.

More ‘666’ moves will happen!

We also produced the following related video:

CBDCs and a Cashless Society
“Bringing you news and analysis of world events in light of Bible prophecy.” This one of the mandates of the Continuing Church of God. The Beast of Revelation is shown as controlling all buying and selling. Might CBDCs fill a role in that control? The Bank of International Settlement predicts there will be at least 9 CBDCs in circulation by 2030. Globalists would prefer a faster pace. What nations or groups of nations are pushing for a Central Bank Digital Currency? There is one group of nations that has claimed it wants to be the dominant force in a CBDC. Will this group of nations become a tie-in to the 666 Mark of the Beast? How close are we to CBDCs? Dr. Thiel uses verses from Bible prophecy to shine the light of understanding on the dangers of the coming Beast power and the cashless society promised by CBDCs. You can read the corresponding article to this video titled “Yes, there are threats of cashlessness, most in NZ, Canada, the US, & Australia oppose CBDCs, yet the IMF continues to push for CBDCs.”

Here is a link to our video: CBDCs and a Cashless Society.

The European ‘666’ will arise and control buying and selling.

It will come to Europe, but not the same way to the USA.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

The Mark of Antichrist What is the mark of Antichrist? What have various ones claimed? Here is a link to a related sermon What is the ‘Mark of Antichrist’?

Mark of the Beast What is the mark of the Beast? Who is the Beast? What have various ones claimed the mark is? What is the ‘Mark of the Beast’?

Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe? Here is are links to related videos: European history and the Bible, Europe In Prophecy, The End of European Babylon, and Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European? Here is a link to a related sermon in the Spanish language: El Fin de la Babilonia Europea.

Could God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 2035 or? There is also a video titled: When Does the 6000 Years End? 2031? 2035? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?

Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon; When Will the End of the Age Come?; Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

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