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 declaration may signify a shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance. 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 said, also encouraging banks to explore tokenized deposits further.
He described the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones as "unsatisfactory." In contrast to the former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who led a strict regulatory stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, Lescure's statements suggest a more open approach. Le Maire had previously stated that such cryptocurrencies "had no place on European soil" and posed a threat to "the sovereignty of nations." More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned against the potential threat of stablecoins and tokenized private money to monetary sovereignty during a confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.