According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that the European Union needs more stablecoins pegged to the euro and that EU banks should explore the concept of tokenized deposits. This announcement may signal a shift in the French government's and its central bank's approach to digital currencies.
Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026. The goal is to challenge the dominance of the US in the digital payments sector. Lescure emphasized, 'This is what we need, and this is what we want.' He also encouraged banks to further investigate the possibility of launching tokenized deposits. The minister noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is relatively low compared to those pegged to the US dollar, describing the situation as 'not satisfactory.' Previously, the French government had taken a strict stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, with former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stating that they posed a threat to national sovereignty.
In 2023, Le Maire was involved in a European Commission plan to limit the widespread use of stablecoins as a replacement for traditional currency. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate the threat of privatization of money and loss of monetary sovereignty.