Euro zone finance ministers are set to meet on Thursday to explore ways to boost the development of euro-denominated stablecoins, amid concerns that the fast-growing market could remain dominated by the United States, a senior euro zone official said.
Stablecoins are digital tokens whose value is pegged to a traditional currency and supported by reserves such as cash or assets. The official noted that the global stablecoin market, currently worth around $300 billion, could expand tenfold within the next decade.
At present, nearly all stablecoins are tied to the U.S. dollar. A new U.S. law passed in July — the Genius Act — seeks to reinforce this dominance by requiring issuers to back their coins with U.S. dollars or Treasury securities.
“The discussion is essentially about how we should position ourselves in response to this,” the official said, speaking ahead of the ministerial talks.
Last month, a group of nine European banks, including ING and UniCredit, introduced a euro-based stablecoin to challenge U.S. control of the digital asset space. However, euro-denominated stablecoins currently represent only around $620 million of the $300 billion global total.
Europe already has its own framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), but ministers are expected to consider whether it needs updating to better foster euro-denominated stablecoins.
“They will examine whether we’ve struck the right balance between managing risks and encouraging financial innovation — whether more supportive measures or regulatory adjustments are needed to nurture high-quality European stablecoins, and how this ties into the digital euro,” the official said.
“This is still an early discussion — the aim is to bring the issue to the ministers’ attention, hear their initial views, and then decide the next steps,” the official added.
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