France's financial regulators are taking a different approach than the European Central Bank on stablecoin rewards. The French Treasury, market regulator AMF, Bank of France, and ACPR—the banking and insurance supervisor—have jointly urged the European Commission to allow crypto platforms and third parties to pay rewards to stablecoin holders under specific conditions, according to their response on revising MiCA, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.
Under the current version of MiCA, both stablecoin issuers and crypto platforms are prohibited from paying interest on stablecoins simply for holding them. The French authorities argue that rewards "should be regulated rather than prohibited outright, as it tends to develop in any event." They point to the U.S. approach under the GENIUS Act, which prohibits issuers from paying interest but allows third-party rewards.
The French regulators say permission should come with four conditions: platforms paying rewards must be transparent with holders, avoid promising guaranteed returns, refrain from marketing rewards as savings products, and submit to monitoring of their impact on bank deposits. They contend that such indirect remuneration "lowers the cost of holding e-money tokens and can thereby support the 24/7 extension of financial services."
However, France still agrees that stablecoin issuers themselves should remain prohibited from paying interest. The country also wants staking and lending regulated, but unlike the European System of Central Banks, does not call for extending the stablecoin interest ban to those activities.
The ECB and EU national central banks maintain that MiCA's ban on paying stablecoin holders should remain in place and extend to indirect perks such as rewards, fee reductions, and certain loyalty benefits. Central banks argue that "electronic money is intended to be used for making payments and not as a means of saving." They have urged regulators to extend the ban beyond services MiCA regulates, including crypto asset borrowing, lending, and staking.
The disagreement reflects broader global tensions over stablecoins. Commercial banks claim these tokens could drain trillions from deposits, yet major banks are developing their own stablecoins. HSBC has launched its first stablecoin for 3.3 million users in Hong Kong, while dozens of major European banks are developing a shared euro stablecoin through the Qivalis consortium.
The European Commission must report on MiCA by June 30, 2027, and may propose changes to the regulation at that time.
