Europe needs more stablecoins issued in euros and banks in European Union (EU) countries should explore tokenized deposits, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The statements signal a possible change of position within the French government and its central bank.
Lescure expressed support for Qivalis, a group of 12 European banks including BBVA, ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, which are set to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, in a move they hope will counter US dominance in digital payments.
“That’s what we need and that’s what we want.” Lescure said. “I also strongly recommend banks further explore the launch of tokenized deposits.”
He also said the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to those pegged to the dollar was “not satisfactory.”
Former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire led a tough regulatory stance against privately issued fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies, saying they had “no place on European soil” and were a threat to “the sovereignty of nations.” And in 2023, La Maire was linked to an EU document revealing the European Commission’s plan to prevent stablecoins from being widely used in place of fiat currency.
More recently, during a live confrontation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about stablecoins and yields, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau warned that stablecoins and tokenized private money could accelerate what he framed as a political threat. “The first threat is the privatization of money and the loss of monetary sovereignty,” he added.
