Overview

• Christine Lagarde told the ESRB conference that joint EU–non‑EU stablecoin issuance should be barred from the single market unless foreign operations meet robust equivalence and transfer‑of‑assets safeguards.
• She cautioned that investors would redeem where protections are strongest — in the EU, where MiCA bans fees and mandates par redemptions — risking concentrated stress on EU‑held reserves.
• Lagarde likened the risk to liquidity mismatches in cross‑border banking and said stablecoin issuers should face comparable liquidity‑management requirements to ensure funds are where redemptions occur.
• MiCA sets some of the world’s toughest rules for EU‑issued stablecoins, but its protections do not automatically cover non‑EU legs of multi‑issuance schemes, creating asymmetric oversight within a single token.
• The intervention comes as USD‑pegged coins account for about 99% of market value and the U.S. GENIUS Act accelerates growth, intensifying EU debates on legal fixes, international coordination, and the digital euro.