Denis Beau, deputy governor of the Banque de France, publicly broke ranks with ECB president Christine Lagarde on May 12, calling for an urgent private-sector push to build euro-denominated stablecoins. Beau argued Europe can’t wait for a retail digital euro — currently pencilled in for around 2029 — if it wants to avoid becoming dependent on dollar-pegged tokenised money.
“To ensure a sound development of tokenised finance in Europe, its payment and settlement asset pillar should be in euro,” Beau told analysts, warning that Tether- and Circle-issued tokens already make up roughly 98% of the stablecoin market. That concentration, he said, is a “direct threat” to European monetary sovereignty and raises the prospect of “digital dollarisation” seeping into settlement infrastructure if liquid euro alternatives don’t appear soon.
Beau’s stance contrasts with Lagarde’s caution that privately issued stablecoins could amplify financial vulnerabilities — a view that underpins the ECB’s preference to wait for a state-backed digital euro. Instead, Beau urged “a mobilization of all relevant European players, public and private” and pointed to two near-term building blocks: Qivalis, a consortium of 12 major European banks (including BBVA, ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas) that aims to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in H2 2026; and the Eurosystem’s Pontes project, which plans to issue wholesale central bank money in tokenised form before the end of 2026.
Beau described Pontes’ upcoming rollout as a foundation rather than a finished product: “A first deliverable will become available by the end of this year, with the opening of our wholesale central bank money service in tokenized form.” His comments have backing from other policymakers — notably French Finance Minister Roland Lescure — and even the German central bank has signalled openness to euro-denominated stablecoins as a tool to boost cross-border payment efficiency.
The dispute highlights a wider strategic split in Europe: one camp advocating careful, state-led design to avoid financial risks, and another pressing for fast private-sector innovation to protect monetary autonomy and market relevance. With commercial dollar-pegged stablecoins already dominant, the pressure on European banks, regulators and fintechs to deliver euro-based alternatives is mounting.
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