When French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently revealed their joint financial agenda on the Franco-German Minister of Minister, a proposal stood out: persecution of cooperation and equivalence regimes with third countries in the regulation of the crypto-ass. It was a recognition that digital money, like data, does not stop at the borders. And it was a timely reminder that stablecoins the fastest growing part of digital finances and crypto-only will succeed fully if regulators match their boundless design with cross-border collaboration.
StableCOins: A Payment Upgrade, Not Just a Crypto Tool
Stableecoins are internet-native money: always on, boundless, programmable and accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Unlike traditional payment rails, they do not close on weekends, do not trust complex correspondent bank networks and can move value between Bangkok and Boston in seconds. In many ways, they are the first serious upgrade to cross -border payments since Swift in the 1970s. Where Swift was a messaging network innovation to connect counterparty banks, stablecoins marry marrying messaging with settlement to create a payment innovation breakthrough.
But their value proposition depends on being global. A patchwork of diverging national rulebooks would transform the “value” into fragmented payment intranets – undermine the effectiveness and availability that makes StableCecoin’s transformative.
Converting principles, different paths
The Good News: The world’s leading legislative framework for StableCOins-Europe’s markets in crypto assets for regulation (MICA) and America’s Genius Act-divide is already the same foundation. Both require full 1: 1 reserves in high quality liquid assets, redemption on pairs, regular public reporting and strict governance, risk and anti-whaling (AML) standards. Both allow the issuance of both banks and non-bankers.
Of course, there are differences. Genius imposes tighter spare reserves (limited to map -dated treasuries and reverse repos), while Mica allows a wider mix, including government bonds of longer duration or even covered bonds, but also requires high minimum bank deposits (30% or 60% of the reserve depending on token size). Genius requires monthly certificates, while Mica requires a whitebook at launch. Mica places issuing caps on non-euro stableecoins in scale; Genius creates strict barriers for large technological issuers and separation needs for banks aimed at launching stablecoins. These are examples of important differences, but they are bleached in comparison with the core decoration of what a safe, credible stablecoin looks like.
Foreign issuers: Recognition against Multi-Issuing
Where the framework differs most is how they treat foreign issuers.
Genius introduces an explicit Equivalence regime: Stableecoins from “Comparable Jurisdictions” could be offered directly in the United States without a duplicative license. This means that Mica-compatible Euro StableCeCoins, subject to US state departmental approval, could probably be offered the entire US market without the need for further, local US licenses.
Mica, on the other hand, requires foreign issuers to create a licensed EU unit and comply with all local requirements, including the need for local reserves, issuance and redemption, and revelations to the EU Multi-Issuance approach.
This difference reflects Timing more than philosophy: The EU went first and tried to bring global stablecoins into its circumference after the weight published its first White Paper in 2019. From its earliest impact assessment, Brussels warned against allowing foreign, non-EU issuers to escape the supervision. MICA even requires data sharing from exchanges to help issuers better calculate their EU footprint and enable supervisor to monitor foreign issuers’ activities. Back when Mica was adopted in 2023, it was too early to introduce a full equivalence regime. The EU Commission was still tasked with reviewing whether an equivalent regime could supplement its approach in its temporary review this year. And the political signal is clear: Macron and Merz explicitly called for cross -border cooperation and the construction of reciprocity mechanisms for stablecoins with reliable partners. The transatlantic stars adapt.
International cooperation cannot wait
The next 12-24 months will be crucial. With Mica and Genius as key referring frames, the political focus will shift from preparation rules to customize them. The opportunity is huge: A coordinated transatlantic approach would give businesses and consumers confidence that a fully backed, transparent redeemable digital euro or dollar -based stableecoin is the same payment instrument on each side of the Atlantic, regardless of where it is licensed. It would also give other larger economies a strong template to connect to – to ensure that stablecoins develop into a globally publicly good one rather than a legislative race to the bottom.
To not adapt would be expensive. Companies need stableecoins in multiple currencies to control and modernize, for example, streams and global supply chains. Consumers also need access to fluid, widely used tokens on regulated local trading sites. Without cooperation, the vacuum will be filled either by unregulated offshore players or by fragmented national systems that cut itself off from global liquidity, utility and economic activity.
The monetary successor to the open web
Two decades ago opposite regulators to cut the Internet to national intranet – and the open web floral. Today we face the monetary successor. StableCOins can end what the Internet started: to make value even as open, programmable and global as information.
If the EU, the US and other jurisdictions seize this moment to build recognition and reciprocity, stablecoins will become the backbone of real time, global trade and initial in a new era with global economic prosperity through the friction -free cross -border value.
