According to Reuters, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-issued stablecoins on Friday, suggesting that banks in EU countries should explore tokenized deposits. This statement may signal a shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on the matter.
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. The goal is to counter the dominance of the US in digital payments. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also encouraging 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 that they had no place in Europe and posed a threat to national sovereignty. Additionally, in 2023, Le Maire was linked to an EU document outlining the European Commission's plan to limit the widespread use of stablecoins as a replacement for fiat currency. More recently, Bank of France Governor 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 confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.