French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins and encouraged EU banks to explore tokenized deposits on Friday, as reported by Reuters. This shift in stance may signal a new direction for the French government and its central bank. 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 US dominance in digital payments.
"This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging banks to further investigate tokenized deposits. He described the current low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones as "unsatisfactory." This stance marks a departure from the previous strict regulatory approach led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who opposed privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies.
More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could pose a threat to monetary sovereignty during a discussion with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.