French Finance Minister Roland Lescure emphasized the need for more euro-denominated stablecoins in Europe and encouraged banks to explore tokenized deposits, marking a potential shift in the French government's and its central bank's stance on the issue. Lescure expressed support for Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks aiming to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, in an effort to counter US dominance in the digital payments sector. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also urging banks to further investigate the launch of tokenized deposits.
He noted that the current volume of euro-pegged stablecoins is "not satisfactory" compared to those pegged to the US dollar. This stance differs from that of former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who previously advocated for strict regulations against privately-issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, citing threats to national sovereignty. More recently, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned of the potential risks of stablecoins and tokenized private money, including the loss of monetary sovereignty.