French Finance Minister Roland Lescure has called for a significant increase in euro-based stablecoins across Europe, encouraging the bloc’s banks to explore tokenised deposits. Speaking at a crypto conference in Paris, Lescure voiced dissatisfaction with the comparatively low volume of euro-pegged stablecoins when measured against their dollar-pegged counterparts. Stablecoins are a form of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, typically by being backed by traditional currencies, offering a stable bridge between traditional finance and the digital asset world.
The global financial sector, including numerous banks, is actively experimenting with stablecoins. This exploration has intensified, particularly following the establishment of stablecoin regulations in the United States last year. The current landscape highlights a stark contrast: the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether, boasts over US$185 billion of its dollar-pegged tokens in circulation. In comparison, Societe Generale’s euro-pegged stablecoin, launched in 2023, has only approximately 107 million euros in circulation, underscoring the dominance of dollar-backed digital assets.
To address this imbalance and counter US influence in digital payments, a consortium of ten major European banks, including ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, formed a company last year. This group aims to launch its own euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, an initiative strongly endorsed by Minister Lescure. “That is what we need and that is what we want,” he remarked, referring to the banks’ efforts. Lescure further urged banks to “strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenised deposits,” signalling broader European ambition in the digital currency space.
