Europe needs more euro-issued stablecoins and banks across EU countries must explore tokenized deposits, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The comments signal a potential shift in the stance of the French government and its central bank.
Lescure expressed support for Qivalis, a group of 12 European banks including BBVA, ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, which is set to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, in a move it hopes will counter US dominance in digital payments.
“That’s what we need and that’s what we want.” Lescure said. “I also strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits.”
He also said the relatively small amount of euro-denominated stablecoins compared to dollar-denominated ones was “not satisfactory”.
Former finance minister Bruno Le Maire spearheaded a tough regulatory stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, saying they “had no place on European soil” and were a threat to “the sovereignty of nations.” And in 2023, La Maire was linked to an EU document that revealed the European Commission’s plan to stop stablecoins from being widely used in place of fiat currency.
Recently, during a live confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about stablecoins and interest rates, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate what he presented as a political threat. “The first threat is the privatization of money and the loss of monetary sovereignty,” he added.
