Lagarde does not object to stablecoins because they are inefficient. She objects because they cannot be programmed, paused, or read by Frankfurt. "Strengthening the international role of the euro" is bureaucratic for "we need a currency that obeys when we instruct it to." The digital euro is the actual ask. Capital flowing into USDC and USDT is doing exactly what Lagarde fears, choosing exits the ECB has not yet sealed. Every committee paper on capital-markets union points at one destination, a programmable euro on a surveillance ledger, with whatever spending limits, expiry dates, and counter-party restrictions Frankfurt later finds convenient. The "efficiency" argument is what an institution says when its real complaint is that nobody asked permission.