French lender Societe Generale will become the first bank to offer a stablecoin on a cryptocurrency exchange.
According to a report from the Financial Times (FT), the Paris-based bank will introduce its EUR CoinVertible stablecoin on the Bitstamp crypto exchange on Wednesday, December 6, 2023.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of Societe Generale Forge, said the crypto ecosystem has become “highly concentrated on a few existing stablecoins,” emphasizing that up to 90% are denominated in US dollars.
“[…] We definitely think there is a place for a bank in this field and there is a place for the euro. [denominated] stablecoin.”
Jean-Marc Stenger
Stenger added that the bank wants to make its stablecoin widely available for settling trades in bonds and digital funds, which is contrary to what JPMorgan offers with its JPM Coin.
The move comes after Societe Generale issued nearly $11 million in three-year unsecured senior notes on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. AXA Investment Managers and Generali Investments “fully subscribed to the related security tokens through a private placement,” with AXA Investment notably spending €5 million on EURCV.
However, as crypto.news previously reported, the crypto community reacted negatively to the new bank-controlled stablecoin, raising multiple concerns.
According to observers who analyzed the smart contract code for EURCV, before a transaction can be completed, it must first be authorized by a centralized registrar (probably the one controlled by the bank), as required by the smart contract. Mason Versluis, a cryptographic researcher, noted in a publication that the code behind the stablecoin was “absolutely horrible” and advised the French lender to “stop trying to get into” cryptocurrencies.
