Do I have to use the digital euro?

As an individual: no, you won't be forced to use or hold the digital euro. You can keep using cash and your current bank account exactly as you do now.

The word "obliged" does appear in the digital euro rules — but it points at banks, not at you. That's the confusion worth clearing up.

The obligation is on banks, not people#

Here's the part that gets misreported. Once the digital euro launches, credit institutions will be obliged to offer basic digital euro services to customers on request. And those basic services are free for individuals.

Read that carefully:

• The bank must offer it if you ask.
• You are not required to ask, hold it, or use it.

It's a duty to make the option available — the same way a bank must offer you a basic account — not a duty forcing money into your hands. If you never request a digital euro, nothing changes for you.

Cash isn't going anywhere#

The other half of "do I have to" is really "will I be pushed off cash." No — the ECB's position is that the digital euro complements cash, not replaces it. The whole project exists to preserve public access to central bank money as cash use declines, not to remove cash.

So your realistic options after launch would be: cash, your normal bank account, and optionally a digital euro. It's an addition, not a swap. More on that in Will the digital euro replace cash?

What using it would actually involve — if you choose to#

If you did opt in, it would look ordinary:

• You'd get a digital euro account through your bank or a licensed provider, inside an app you likely already use.
• It'd be identified by a DEAN, with an optional phone-number alias so people can pay you without seeing your account details.
• Basic use would be free.

No crypto wallet, no new institution, no obligation to move your salary into it.

The one place "must" applies to businesses#

For completeness: the business side of the rules is stricter, because merchants are how a payment method becomes usable in practice. But that's a separate topic from whether you must use it — and the published design keeps the individual firmly in the "may, not must" category.

The bottom line#

• You don't have to use or hold the digital euro. It's optional for individuals.
• Banks (credit institutions) will be obliged to offer basic services on request, free for individuals — that's the only "must" aimed at availability.
• Cash stays. The digital euro is an added option, not a replacement.

And none of it is live yet — see when the digital euro is coming out.