French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-based stablecoins and encouraged European banks to explore tokenized deposits on Friday, as reported by Reuters. This marks a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's approach to digital assets. Lescure expressed 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. The goal is to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments.
Lescure stated, "This is what we need, and this is what we want. I also strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits." He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "not satisfactory." Previously, the French government had taken a strict stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, with former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stating they had no place in Europe and posed a threat to national sovereignty. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could lead to the privatization of money and a loss of monetary sovereignty.