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 statement may signal a shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance.
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 to counter US dominance in digital payments. "That's what we need, and that's what we want," Lescure said, also encouraging banks to explore tokenized deposits further. He noted that the relatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ones is "not satisfactory".
In contrast to the previous strict regulatory stance against privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, this new stance may indicate a more open approach. Former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had previously stated that such cryptocurrencies had no place in Europe and threatened national sovereignty. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could pose a threat to monetary sovereignty.