French Economy Minister Roland Lescure said that digital payment infrastructure in Europe is overly dependent on US-based solutions; He called on European banks to develop euro-based stablecoins and tokenized deposits. In a pre-recorded speech at a cryptocurrency conference held in Paris, Lescure stated that the volume of euro-linked stablecoins remained very low compared to their dollar-linked counterparts and criticized this situation with the words “not satisfactory”.
Euro stablecoin attack expected from banks
In his statement, Lescure stated that three major banks, including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, stand behind the consortium that will issue a euro-indexed stablecoin and stated that he supports this initiative. The stablecoin in question is planned to be released in the second half of 2026. Lescure encouraged banks to further explore tokenized deposit options, not just stablecoin projects.
Stablecoins indexed to the US dollar are far ahead in the industry. While they continue to dominate the market, their total supply has exceeded 300 billion dollars, according to The Block’s data. In particular, Tether’s stablecoin called USDT is at the top of the list with a market value of approximately $186 billion; Circle’s USDC token is in second place with approximately $78.8 billion.
There is a huge gap in the Euro stablecoin market
The market size of euro-based stablecoins is quite limited compared to dollar-based tokens. In CoinGecko data, the total euro stablecoin market value was recorded as 912 million dollars. In this field, EURC, developed by Circle, is the leader with a market size of 426.9 million dollars. It is followed by STASIS’s EURS with $150.3 million and CoinVertible (EURCV) launched by Societe Generale in 2023; The total value of EURCV has reached 126.7 million dollars.
According to a survey by RBC Capital Markets cited by Reuters, two-thirds of banks in Europe report insufficient demand for stablecoins. In contrast, other data sources show that the use of stablecoins for payments and savings has increased significantly.
Users are increasing their interest, remarkable results in new research
In a study conducted by BVNK in collaboration with Coinbase and Artemis and based on YouGov’s data, 4,658 people were interviewed in 15 countries. This research, published in February, shows that 54 percent of participants have held stablecoins in the last 12 months, and 56 percent want to buy more in the coming period. According to the report, users allocate approximately one-third of their total savings to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
On the other hand, another study by payment infrastructure company Borderless found that stablecoin-based foreign exchange transactions are almost on par with banking channels, especially in regions such as Latin America and East Africa. In the study, more than 1.1 million price scans were conducted in 51 different currencies, and the exchange rate difference of 14 of 21 blockchain-based stablecoins with classical banks decreased below 100 basis points.
“Europe’s digital payment infrastructure is overly dependent on US systems, and the amount of euro-based stablecoins in circulation is significantly lower than those linked to the dollar. European banks need to move faster to close this gap.”
