According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated on Friday that the European continent requires more stablecoins pegged to the euro, and EU banks should investigate the potential of tokenized deposits. This announcement marks a potential shift in the French government's and central bank's stance on digital assets.
Lescure expressed his support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, including prominent institutions such as BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plan to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026. The goal of this initiative is to counterbalance the dominance of the US in the digital payments sector.
"This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, adding that he strongly encourages banks to explore the launch of tokenized deposits further. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to those pegged to the US dollar. This stance marks a departure from the previous strict regulatory approach, led by former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who argued that privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies posed a threat to national sovereignty. More recently, the Governor of the Bank of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, warned of the potential risks associated with stablecoins and tokenized private money, citing the threat of privatization of money and loss of monetary sovereignty.