When French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently revealed his joint economic agenda in the Council of Ministers of Franco-German, a proposal stood out: pursuing regimes of collaboration and equivalence with third countries in the field of regulation of the crypto-active essay. It was a recognition that digital money, such as data, does not stop at borders. And it was a timely reminder that Stablecoins, the fastest growing part of digital finances and cryptography, will only succeed if regulators coincide with their design without borders with a cross -border collaboration.
Stablecoins: an update of payments, not just a cryptographic tool
Stablecoins are native Internet money: always on, without borders, programmable and available for any person with a smartphone. Unlike traditional payment rails, they do not close on weekends, they do not trust complex correspondent banking networks and can move the value between Bangkok and Boston in seconds. In many ways, they are the first update would be cross -border payments from Swift in the 1970s. Where Swift was an innovation of the messaging network to connect counterpart benches, Stablecoins married messages with liquidation to create an advance of payment innovation.
But its value proposal depends on being global. A mosaic of divergent national rules would make the “internet of value” into fragmented payment intranets, which undermines the efficiency and accessibility that makes the established ones transformable.
Convergent principles, different paths
The good news: the main regulatory frameworks of the world for Stablecoins, Europe’s markets in the regulation of Crypto-Assets (Mica) and the United States Genius Law, already share the same base. Both require complete reserves of 1: 1 in high quality liquid assets, redemption to the PAR, regular public reports and strict standards of governance, risk and anti-launch of money (AML). Both allow the issuance of banks and non -banking equally.
There are, of course, differences. Genius imposes more strict reserve rules (limited to Treasury bonds of short date and reverse rests), while Mica allows a broader combination, including longer -term government bonds or even covered bonds, but also requires high minimum bank deposit ratios (30% or 60% of the reserve that depends on the size of the token). Genius requires monthly certifications, while Mica demands a white book in the launch. Mica places emission limits in stablecoins no euro on scale; Genius creates strict barriers for large technology emitters and segregation requirements for banks with the aim of launching Stablecoins. These are examples of important differences, but pale compared to the central alignment about how a safe and credible stable is seen.
Foreign emitters: versus multiple recognition
Where frames diverge more is how they treat foreign issuing.
Genius presents an explicit equivalence regime: Stablecoins of “comparable jurisdictions” could be offered directly in the USA without duplicate licenses. That means that in the future, subject to the approval of the US Department of the Treasury., It is likely that the entire US market can be offered to comply with the entire US market without the need for additional local licenses in the United States.
Mica, on the other hand, requires that foreign issuing issues establish an EU entity with a license and meet all local requirements, including the need for local reserves, issuance and redemption, and disseminations proportional to the participation of the EU of the owners and activities of the issuer, the calls Multiple insufficiency approach.
This difference reflects the time rather than philosophy: the EU was first, seeking to bring global stable to its perimeter after Libra published its first white document in 2019. Since its first impact evaluations, Brussels warned against allowing foreign emitters and not to escape supervision. Mica even requires the exchange of data by exchanges to help the emitters better calculate their EU footprint and allow supervisors to monitor the activities of foreign issuing. When Mica was adopted in 2023, it was too early to introduce a total equivalence regime. Even so, the EU Commission had the task of reviewing whether an equivalence regime could complement its approach to its provisional review due to this year. And the political signal is clear: Macron and Merz explicitly requested the cross -border collaboration and the construction of reciprocity mechanisms for the stables with trusted partners. Transatlantic stars are aligning.
International collaboration cannot wait
The next 12–24 months will be decisive. With Mica and Genius as key reference frameworks, the policy approach will change the drafting rules to align them. The opportunity is enormous: a coordinated transatlantic approach would give companies and consumers the confidence that a digital euro or stablecoin based on completely backed and transparent dollars is the same payment instrument on both sides of the Atlantic, independent of where it is licensed. It would also give other important economies a strong template to connect, ensuring that the stable evolves to a global public good instead of a regulatory race towards the bottom.
It would not be aligned it would be expensive. Corporations need stable in multiple coins to administer and modernize FX flows and global supply chains. Consumers also need access to liquid tokes, widely used in regulated local places. Without collaboration, the void will be full of actors not regulated in the high seas or by fragmented national systems that separate from the liquidity, utility and global economic activity.
The monetary sequel to the open web
Two decades ago, regulators resisted carving internet in national intranets, and the open network flourished. Today we face the monetary sequel. Stablecoins can finish what the Internet began: make the value open, programmable and global as information.
If the EU, the US and other jurisdictions take advantage of this moment to generate recognition and reciprocity, Stablecoins will become the backbone of global trade in real time and the beginning of a new era of global economic prosperity through cross -border exchange without value friction.
