At Friday's European Banking Congress, German Finance Minister Olaf Schulz stated that it was essential to make progress in readying Europe's and Germany's banking systems for the digital era, but that such actions did not extend to privately issued cryptocurrencies.

"I do not support private sector digital currencies," he was quoted saying.

The comment comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) recently launched a digital survey asking citizens about their priorities with regards to a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the eurozone.

"Private sector digital currencies" could refer to projects such as Facebook's Libra, which triggered a wave of regulatory outrage upon its announcement in 2019 and has since undergone drastic structural changes.

This story is breaking and will be updated shortly.

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