France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure has publicly endorsed the creation of more euro-denominated stablecoins and urged European banks to advance tokenized deposit projects, marking a significant policy shift in Paris. Speaking at a crypto conference in Paris on April 17, Lescure stated that the current disparity between the volume of euro-pegged stablecoins and dollar tokens is "not satisfactory" and warned that Europe cannot allow its digital payment infrastructure to be dominated by foreign currencies.
This policy pivot coincides with the preparations of the Qivalis alliance, a consortium of 12 major European banks including ING, UniCredit, BBVA, and BNP Paribas. The alliance, based in Amsterdam, is targeting the launch of a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026. Lescure explicitly endorsed the Qivalis initiative, stating, "that is what we need and that is what we want," providing a political green light for the project.
Qivalis is working towards regulatory approval from the Dutch central bank and aims to operate as an electronic money institution. CEO Jan-Oliver Sell described a native euro stablecoin as "a major turning point for digital commerce and financial innovation in Europe." The group's goal is to become the primary interface between blockchain technology and the euro, aiming to be the default euro token across exchanges, custodians, and DeFi platforms.
This push represents a strategic move to curb "digital dollarization" in European payments and decentralized finance (DeFi), countering the dominance of dollar-linked tokens like USDT and USDC. The shift also aligns with a broader European regulatory context, where authorities like the Bank of France have recently called for stricter limits on foreign stablecoin payments under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework to mitigate systemic risk and protect monetary policy.
