French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has emphasized the need for more stablecoins pegged to the euro, urging banks in the European Union to explore tokenized deposits. This statement, reported by Reuters, marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's approach to digital currencies.
Lescure expressed support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks planning to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, aiming to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits.
He noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is unsatisfactory compared to those pegged to the US dollar. This stance differs from the previous strict regulatory approach led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who had expressed concerns over privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies threatening the sovereignty of nations. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned of the potential threat of stablecoins and tokenized private money to monetary sovereignty during a discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.