Societe Generale Teams With Consensys to Expand Stablecoin Access

The lender on Wednesday (April 15) announced a collaboration between its crypto-focused division Societe Generale-FORGE and blockchain company Consensys to make its USD CoinVertible token available on cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask.

The move gives MetaMask’s millions of users, for the first time, access to a regulated stablecoin issued by the subsidiary of a major European bank, Societe Generale said in a news release.

“We’re at an inflection point in how value moves and how financial systems are structured. Stablecoins are an important part of that evolution, helping bridge traditional frameworks and decentralized infrastructure,” Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder and CEO of Consensys, said in the release.

“At Consensys, we’re focused on helping steward that shift by building open, global, interoperable infrastructure that expands access, unlocks innovation, and enables more dynamic and user-centric financial experiences.”

According to the release, the integration will let MetaMask users access the Societe Generale-FORGE stablecoin for on/off ramping between fiat and USD CoinVertible and trading crypto assets using USD CoinVertible.

It also lets them access DeFi protocols with USD CoinVertible and pay blockchain transaction fees using the stablecoin with the Gas Station feature, the bank added.

Societe Generale introduced USD CoinVertible last year, the first major lender to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin. SG-Forge had unveiled a euro-pegged coin in 2023.

Writing about banks’ adoption of stablecoins earlier this year, PYMNTS argued that it is becoming apparent that there “will be no one-size-fits-all bank stablecoin,” with the market “segmenting along functional lines.”

Some tokens will be created for interbank settlement, others for asset servicing and others for corporate treasury or cross-border transactions, with design choices around blockchain selection, programmability, interest and access controls informing those priorities.

“We don’t start with the asset,” Biswarup Chatterjee, global head of partnerships and innovation, Citi Services at Citi, told PYMNTS. “We typically start with our client need, and then we look at the pros and cons of each type of asset or financing instrument.”

PYMNTS has also examined why businesses that want to use stablecoins feel more comfortable working with banks than with crypto wallets, contending that banks offer a layer of trust that CFOs already understand.

“They offer established custody frameworks, standardized reporting and compliance processes that align with existing audit requirements,” the report said. “When stablecoins are accessed through a bank, they are effectively wrapped in the institutional safeguards that finance teams depend on.”