BIS Calls for Global Stablecoin Coordination as Europe Pushes Euro Tokens

Key Takeaways

• The BIS said on April 20 that stablecoins require international coordination as regulators continue to shape oversight frameworks.

• BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said widespread use of stablecoins in their current form could pose risks to monetary policy, financial stability and financial integrity.

• European policymakers have also backed euro-denominated stablecoins and tokenized deposits as part of a broader digital-finance push.

The Bank for International Settlements has renewed its call for coordinated stablecoin oversight as regulators in different jurisdictions continue building their own frameworks for digital payments.

In a speech delivered in Tokyo on April 20, BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said the pressure point is no longer whether stablecoins deserve regulatory attention.

Authorities are already engaged. The harder question is how to keep those frameworks aligned across borders as the market develops.

The speech comes as central banks, finance ministries and market regulators step up their focus on stablecoins’ role in payments and financial infrastructure.

In the speech, de Cos said stablecoins may offer useful features, including programmability and possible applications in cross-border payments.

He also said they still fall short on the basic properties expected of a sound monetary instrument.

He warned that if stablecoins reached broad adoption in their current form, the risks would extend into monetary policy, financial stability and financial integrity.

Those are the fault lines central banks watch most closely, and the BIS placed stablecoins directly within that frame.

This is consistent with the BIS’s broader position.

In its 2025 Annual Economic Report, the institution said stablecoins “fall short” as a foundation for sound money and warned that regulatory gaps could undermine financial stability and monetary sovereignty.

The BIS has tied its assessment to issues including governance, redeemability, resilience and systemic spillovers.

European officials are also pushing to raise the euro’s profile in digital payments.

In a statement after a Jan. 19 meeting, the French and German finance ministers said they support exploring measures to expand the euro’s international role in digital payments, including euro-denominated stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

That language places stablecoins inside a broader European policy agenda tied to payments infrastructure and the euro’s international position.

The conversation is no longer confined to supervision alone. It now includes the currency layer of digital finance and the institutions likely to shape it.

The ECB has also engaged directly with the issue.

In its April 2026 Macroprudential Bulletin, the ECB looked at euro-denominated stablecoins and how they could affect sovereign bond markets in the euro area.

The analysis focused on reserve assets, redemption pressure and possible spillovers into the broader financial system.

For crypto firms, banks and payment companies, stablecoins are drawing closer regulatory and policy scrutiny.

The core questions are starting to sharpen. Who sets the rules for issuance and use?

Which currencies anchor digital payment networks? How much space will private issuers have inside future payment systems?

The BIS speech and recent European policy documents point in the same direction.

Stablecoins are now part of a larger institutional discussion about regulatory coordination, digital financial infrastructure and the architecture of cross-border payments.

The BIS speech also arrives as EU supervision tightens.

ESMA said the MiCA transitional period will expire across the EU on July 1, 2026, after which firms serving EU clients without a MiCA license must stop offering crypto-asset services.

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