Europe Vies To Close Stablecoin Gap
France pushes euro stablecoins and tokenized deposits as EU banks race to close the gap with dollar-led digital payments.
France is pressing European banks to accelerate the development of euro-denominated stablecoins, as policymakers grow concerned that the region might fall further behind the U.S. in the shift toward digital payments and tokenized finance.
Recently, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure publicly called for more euro-based stablecoins and urged banks to explore tokenized deposits, saying the limited circulation of euro-pegged tokens compared with dollar-backed alternatives was “not satisfactory,” during a pre-recorded address to a crypto industry conference.
Meanwhile, a consortium of European banks, called Qivalis, plans to launch a more competitive alternative to dollar-pegged stablecoins in the second half of this year, subject to approval from the Dutch central bank.
Qivalis, which includes banks like ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, was formally unveiled in December and has received continued praise from European authorities. Referring to the initiative, Lescure said, “That is what we need, and that is what we want.” At the same time, he strongly encouraged banks to further explore launching tokenized deposits.
Enter Fireblocks
Late in April, the consortium selected Fireblocks as the technology provider for its planned MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, a step that provides it with the tokenization, wallet, and settlement infrastructure needed to move the project from planning to a planned launch in the second half of 2026.
Around the same time, Societe Generale’s digital assets unit, SG-Forge, said it was expanding its crypto client base to 15 firms, including exchanges, brokers, and wallet providers, showing that bank-linked activity is growing but remains small.
Stablecoins are already widely used in crypto trading and are increasingly being explored for settlement, cross-border payments, and liquidity management, but the market remains overwhelmingly dollar-based as industry participants debate whether euro-pegged coins face demand or regulatory constraints.
Recent research from RBC Capital Markets found that two-thirds of European banks surveyed still view demand for euro-pegged stablecoins as limited. Conversely, Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of SG-Forge, has argued that a better-regulated infrastructure remains a key condition for broader adoption.
“[There is] a very, very strong need for well-regulated, robust offering in the crypto and stablecoin space,” he said in an interview with Reuters.