Societe Generale Chairman: Europe needs to get rid of fear and embrace stablecoins

PANews reported on July 4 that according to the Financial Times, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Chairman of Societe Generale and former member of the European Central Bank's Executive Committee, wrote an article titled "Europe Needs to Get Rid of Fear and Embrace Stablecoins", saying that Europe faces the risk of being marginalized in the digital financial ecosystem. Currently, 99% of the world's stablecoins are issued by the United States and denominated in US dollars, and the euro has almost no presence in emerging fields. Although the European Union has launched the world's most comprehensive crypto asset regulatory framework MiCA, requiring stablecoin issuers to hold 30% cash + 70% high-rated sovereign bonds with high liquidity reserves, cultural risk aversion still hinders innovation. European banks regard stablecoins as a threat and lack the motivation to invest.

The author points out three major cognitive misunderstandings: underestimating the strategic value of tokenization technology; mistaking it for being able to isolate the impact of global stablecoins; and failing to realize that it negatively endangers monetary sovereignty. The article emphasizes that the European Central Bank has the institutional advantage to lead the regulation of stablecoins, and now is a critical time to reverse the impression of "over-regulation". If it hesitates, Europe will lose its voice in the future global financial landscape.