ECB’s Nagel Says Another Rate Hike Cannot Be Ruled Out

The signal matters less for what it commits the ECB to than for what it refuses to close off. By keeping a hike explicitly on the table without naming conditions or a timeframe, Nagel preserves optionality in a way that leaves rate-sensitive crypto and tokenized RWA markets pricing policy uncertainty rather than a clear trajectory. The German competitiveness aside is the more interesting tell: it frames the rate debate as a structural-growth question, not just an inflation one. Whether other Governing Council members echo this open-ended stance is the open question.