According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that Europe requires more stablecoins pegged to the euro, and EU banks should investigate tokenized deposits. This announcement may mark 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 to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments.
"This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure said, also encouraging banks to explore tokenized deposits further. He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to those pegged to the US dollar is "not satisfactory." Previously, the French government, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, had taken a strict stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, considering them a threat to national sovereignty.
In 2023, Le Maire was linked to an EU document outlining plans to limit the widespread use of stablecoins as a replacement for traditional fiat currency. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate the loss of monetary sovereignty, which he framed as a political threat.