France’s finance minister is pushing Europe to step up its stablecoin game.
In a pre-recorded speech at a crypto conference in Paris, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure urged European banks to accelerate development of euro‑pegged stablecoins, calling the current volume “not satisfactory,” Reuters reported on April 17. Lescure praised the Qivalis project — a collaboration among banks including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas — which aims to launch a euro-based stablecoin in the second half of 2026.
Why it matters: stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged to fiat currencies that function as on‑ and off‑ramps for digital value transfers. Today the market is dominated by US-dollar‑pegged coins such as USDT and USDC, mirroring the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency. That dominance is only expected to grow after the GENIUS Act, signed by US President Donald Trump in July 2025, which Congressional backstops designed to give institutions clearer regulatory guardrails for dollar‑based stablecoins.
Lescure’s call is part of a broader EU push to reduce dependency on non‑European providers amid rising tensions with the United States over security burden‑sharing and geopolitical approaches. Alongside private-sector initiatives like Qivalis, the European Central Bank is developing a digital euro — a central bank digital currency — as another route to ensure Europe retains monetary sovereignty in the digital economy.
How big are euro stablecoins today? Not very. CoinMarketCap data puts the total euro‑stablecoin market at about $675.9 million, with EURC leading at $429.01 million. By contrast, euro‑pegged tokens account for just 0.207% of the global stablecoin market, which CoinMarketCap values at roughly $325.72 billion.
Lescure also urged European banks to explore tokenized deposits — blockchain‑based digital representations of traditional deposits. Major global banks, including JP Morgan, HSBC and Citi, already offer variations of tokenized deposit products, and Lescure advised European lenders to tap the efficiency and programmability benefits these assets can provide to the banking system.
Bottom line: European policymakers and banks are sounding the alarm on dollar dominance and are pursuing a dual strategy — private euro stablecoins plus a digital euro — to strengthen Europe’s payment infrastructure and retain control over its digital monetary future.
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