Societe Generale Expands Crypto Bet, Targets Millions via MetaMask Integration

Société Générale, one of Europe’s long-established financial institutions with over 160 years of operations, is taking another step into digital assets.

This time, it is expanding access to its dollar-backed stablecoin.

USDCV Expansion

Its crypto arm, SG-FORGE, has made the USD CoinVertible (USDCV) token available on MetaMask through a partnership with Consensys. According to Bloomberg, this aims to bring bank-issued digital money to more users via self-custody wallets. Announced April 15, the move targets millions of users, and is expected to potentially boost compliant on-chain liquidity as well as ease access between traditional finance and DeFi, while raising regulatory and counterparty trust concerns.

The French bank launched its dollar-backed stablecoin, USD CoinVertible (USDCV), on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains last year, with Bank of New York Mellon serving as the token’s reserve custodian.

Prior to USDCV’s introduction, SG-FORGE had launched a MiCA-compliant EUR stablecoin (EURCV). Even with strong branding and regulatory support, EURCV had initially struggled to gain traction in a market led by established crypto players. In February, the platform deployed EURCV on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). This marked the fourth network supporting the stablecoin, alongside Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.

SocGen’s Stablecoin Strategy

The stablecoin market is worth about $321 billion, led by Tether’s USDT with around $185 billion in value. USD Coin (USDC), issued by Circle, ranks second with a market cap of about $79 billion. The sector also saw many new entrants last year. Jean-Marc Stenger, who happens to be the Chief Executive Officer of SG-FORGE, said this trend drove the launch of its tokens, while acknowledging that the market remains largely USD-denominated.

“After the release of a MiCA-compliant EUR stablecoin (EURCV), the launch of a US Dollar version (USDCV) was the obvious next step for Societe Generale-FORGE as market adoption of stablecoins is growing exponentially. The stablecoin market remains largely US Dollar denominated. This new currency will enable our clients, either institutions, corporates or retail investors, to leverage the benefits of an institutional-grade stablecoin.”