The European Central Bank and the Bank of France are to be part of the same team. Now they are reading a completely different strategy for the future of digital money in Europe.
Denis Baux, Deputy Governor of the Banque de France, is pushing hard for the rapid development of euro-denominated tokenized money and stablecoins built in partnership with the private sector. Meanwhile, ECB President Christine Lagarde would rather keep the spotlight on the central bank’s own digital euro project, treating private stablecoins as a secondary concern at best.
Two visions, one currency
Bo’s argument is simple and clear. Europe cannot afford to wait. He is calling for collaboration between private and public institutions to build a pan-European tokenized payments infrastructure, and hopes that the regulatory framework will be adapted under MiCA to make this happen more quickly.
Banque de France’s wholesale tokenized money service is scheduled to launch by the end of 2025, a full 18 months ahead of the ECB’s digital euro experiment schedule.
On the private sector side, the Kyvaris consortium, made up of 12 major banks including ING and BNP Paribas, plans to launch a private digital euro in 2025. This effort aligns well with Bo’s vision for European banks to build tokenized solutions rather than waiting for government-issued alternatives.
Lagarde’s position is more cautious. He views private euro stablecoins as less desirable than central bank digital currencies, arguing that the ECB’s own digital euro should be prioritized. The ECB’s project will progress to the provider selection stage as of October 2025, with pilot operations scheduled for mid-2027.
Why is disagreement important?
Dollar-denominated stablecoins, primarily USDT and USDC, dominate the global stablecoin market. Europe’s market share is practically zero. The month in which there is no reliable euro-denominated digital alternative will be the month in which dollar stablecoins become further entrenched in the world’s crypto and payments rails.
Bo’s push for private tokenized money isn’t just about innovation for innovation’s sake. It is about European payments autonomy, the idea that the continent should not rely on US-based stablecoin issuers or US payment networks for its digital trading infrastructure.
The gap between the two timelines is noticeable. The fact that the Banque de France’s wholesale service is scheduled to start in 2025, while the ECB’s digital euro pilot is scheduled for mid-2027, is no small difference in schedule. It’s the philosophical gap between speed and control that is more important.
Private companies won’t wait
The fact that 12 major financial institutions are coming together to build a private digital euro is sending a signal that they don’t want to wait for the ECB’s schedule.
Bo’s call for further regulatory adaptation suggests that even MiCA in its current form is not enough to realize the tokenized payments infrastructure he envisions.
Banque de France has historically been one of the most progressive European central banks when it comes to digital assets, having conducted tokenization experiments earlier than many other central banks.
