According to recent reports, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has emphasized the need for a greater number of euro-backed stablecoins in Europe, while also encouraging banks to explore the potential of tokenized deposits. This shift in stance was apparent in Lescure's comments on Friday, as reported by Reuters. The French government's central bank may be reevaluating its position on digital currencies. 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 latter half of 2026.
The goal of this initiative is to counter the dominance of the US in the digital payments sector. "This is what we need, and this is what we want," Lescure stated, also emphasizing the importance of banks delving deeper into the launch of tokenized deposits.
He noted that the current volume of euro-backed stablecoins is unsatisfactory compared to those pegged to the US dollar. In the past, the French government has maintained a strict regulatory stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, with former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire asserting that they 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 monetary sovereignty loss.