According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that Europe requires more stablecoins pegged to the euro and that EU banks should investigate tokenized deposits. This declaration may signify a shift in the French government's and its central bank's position. 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 the launch of 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." The previous Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, had taken a strict stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, stating they had no place in Europe and posed a threat to national sovereignty. In 2023, Le Maire was linked to an EU document outlining the European Commission's plan to prevent stablecoins from becoming widely used in place of traditional currency.
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 during a live discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.