Merz and Macron are right. Internet of value requires global stablecoin alignment
When French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently opened their joint economic agenda with the Franco-German Council of Minister, a proposal to stand: pursuing cooperation and equality regime in third countries in the field of crypto-asset regulation. It is a recognition that digital currency, like data, does not stop the boundaries. And it’s a timely reminder that the Stablecoins-the fastest growing part of digital finances and crypto-will fully succeed if regulators match their infinite design with cross-border cooperation.
Stablecoins: a payment upgrade, not just a crypto tool
Stablecoins are internet money-native money: always in, infinite, programmed and available to anyone with a smartphone. Unlike traditional payment metals, they are not near the weekend, do not rely on complex banking networks and can move the value between Bangkok and Boston in seconds. In many ways, they were the first serious upgrade to cross-border payments since the Swift in the 1970s. Where Swift is a change in the messaging network to connect the banks of counterparts, the Stablecoins married the messaging with the regulating to create a collapse of the change in change.
But their value value depends on universal. A patchwork of the Divergent National Rulebook will return to the “Internet of Value” with the fragments of payment intranets – which drops the efficiency and accession to make a change of stablecoins.
Converts principles, different paths
The Good News: The world’s leading regulations for Stablecoins-European markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MICA) and American Genius Act-sharing the same foundation. Both require full 1: 1 reserve in high quality liquid properties, PAR redemption, regular public reporting and strict management, risk and anti-money laundering (AML) standards. Both are allowed to release banks and not banks alike.
There are, of course, difference. Genius imposes lighter reserve policies (limited to short -dated wealth and reverse repos), while MICA allows a wider mix, including longer government duration or even covered bonds, but also requires high minimum bank deposit ratios (30% or 60% of the reserve depending on the size of the token). The genius requires monthly testimonies, as Mica commands a white role in the launch. Mica puts the issue caps on non-euro stablecoins on the scale; Genius creates strict barriers for large tech -giving tech and isolation requirements for banks aimed at launching Stablecoins. These are examples of important differences, but they are pale in comparison to the basic alignment with what a safe, convincing stablecoin looks like.
Foreign Issues: Recognition compared to multi-issue
Where the frameworks are different from how they treat foreigners.
Genius introduces a clear Common regime: Stablecoins from “comparable constituents” can be offered directly to the US without duplicative licensing. This means that in the future, subject to approval by the US Department of Treasury, Mica-Compliant Euro Stablecoins is likely to be offered throughout the US market without the need for additional, local US licenses.
Mica, on the contrary, requires foreigners to set up a licensed EU entity and comply with all local requirements, including the need for local reserves, release and redemption, and reveal proportional to the EU part of the holders and activities of the giver-the so-called so-called Multi-issue approach.
That difference reflects the timing more than the philosophy: the EU is first, seeking to bring global stablecoins to its perimeter after Libra published its first white role in 2019. From the very first impact analysis, Brussels warned against allowing foreigners, not EU to escape the managing. MICA also regulates data sharing through exchanges to help providers who better calculate their EU trace and enable supervisors to monitor foreign activities. Back when Mica was adopted in 2023, too early to introduce an entire equality regime. However, the EU commission has been assigned to evaluate whether an equality regime may complement its approach to the temporary review that should be this year. And the political signal is clear: Macron and Merz clearly called the cross-border cooperation and the development of reward mechanisms for stablecoins with trusted partners. Transatlantic stars are aligned.
International cooperation cannot wait
The next 12-24 months will be decisive. In Mica and Genius as the main reference frameworks, the policy focus will move from the formulation of the policies of their alignment. The opportunity is huge: a coordinated transatlantic approach will give businesses and consumers confidence that a fully-backed, transparent redeemed digital euro or dollar based on Stablecoin is the same payment instrument on both sides of the Atlantic, independent which is licensed. It will also provide other major economies of a strong template to connect to – ensuring stablecoins that have evolved into a global public good than a breed of regulation to the bottom.
The failure of the alignment is expensive. Corporations require stablecoins in a lot of money to manage and modernize FX flows and global supply chains. Consumers also need access to liquid, widely used tokens in regulated local trading areas. Without collaboration, vacuum will be filled with either unregulated actors offshore or through fragments national system that cut themselves from global liquidity, utility, and economic activity.
The sequel to the open web
Two decades ago, regulators resisted the Internet carving on the national intranets – and the open web developed. Now we face the next incident. Stablecoins can conclude what the Internet started: making the value itself as open, programmed, and universal as information.
If the EU, US, and other constituents will occupy this moment to produce recognition and reward, Stablecoins will be the backbone of real-time, global commerce and usher in a new era of global economic development through the frictionless cross-border exchange value.
