be on both sides : regulation, and innovation. i will now elaborate on these two key issues. page 2 sur 5 i. the need for well - tailored, consistent and evolving regulations a number of players in the crypto world have recently stumbled - so - called “ stablecoins ”, defi protocol, lending platforms, hedge funds -, demonstrating in practice what many regulators and central banks had been claiming for years : that these new tools of payments and finance had unlocked age - old dangers, meaning that the industry requires robust regulation. salvador ’ s decision to make bitcoin an official “ currency ” in september 2021, regrettable as it is, is a noteworthy experience of a forced attempt to label a currency something that is nothing more than a crypto asset. one year later, actual use is far from taking off. the value of bitcoin against the dollar has been divided by three ; this certainly stands as an explanation, yet a partial one. people also rightly mistrust bitcoin because it does not fulfil most of the basic characteristics of a currency nor any of its ethical requirements. ii but the so - called “ crypto - winter ” is no reason for complacency or inaction. europe has been a pioneer, designing and drafting a new regulatory framework known as mica ( markets in crypto - assets ) that is tailored to new players and assets. i can only hope for its swift formal adoption, ideally by march next year, as well as the adoption of the very welcome agreement on the extension of transparency rules to transfers of crypto assets, which will make money laundering and criminal use more difficult. other major jurisdictions are less advanced in a similar process. we should be extremely mindful to avoid adopting diverging or contradictory regulations, or regulating too late. to do so would be to create an uneven playing field, risking arbitrage and cherry picking. an unduly complex legal pattern would run counter to our objective of protecting clients, and preventing money laundering. crypto players operate globally, and even their place of establishment is sometimes difficult to determine. we are fortunate to have a common international framework. the g7 as early as 2019, then the fsb and the g20 have made great progress in this direction : by the end of the year, the fsb will publish updated high - level recommendations. this success shows that regulation of crypto players and page 3 sur 5 crypto assets and more broadly of payments is

be able to shed some light on the project. beyond purely technical considerations, a retail cbdc could play an anchor role in the digital world, similar to the role played by banknotes in the physical world, iv and hence preserve the accessibility and usability of central bank money. regarding the euro area, a digital euro would also contribute to supporting monetary sovereignty and strategic autonomy, by preventing the use of external digital assets – such as private crypto assets and non - euro cbdcs – as settlement assets, and by facilitating the emergence of a pan - european payment solution at the point of sale, which could serve as a vehicle for the use of a digital euro. but such a digital euro could and should be decentralised in its implementation, in the spirit of public / private partnerships mentioned earlier. on the other side of a mountain, you will obviously always find a side that is less exposed to the sun ; here, this northern face is wholesale cbdc. it currently attracts little public interest, although it poses relatively less complex legal issues, and has two strong business cases. first, a wholesale cbdc could significantly contribute to improving cross - border and cross - currency payments, a topic on which we have made progress over the past year. following a first report delivered to the g20 in july 2021, the future of payments working group of the bis has recently finalised a new report outlining options for access and interoperability of cbdcs for cross - border payments. second, a wholesale cbdc could accompany the tokenisation of securities as a safe and liquid settlement asset for them on a blockchain technology. failing to offer market participants a wholesale cbdc could open the door to an extensive use of socalled stablecoins, which would pose a systemic risk. over the past two years, the banque de france has therefore been looking into a wholesale cbdc with a view to contribute to eurosystem ’ s efforts in designing and developing it when the time comes. and this time could come sooner than expected, with the upcoming entry into application of the european pilot regime page 5 sur 5 in early 2023 - only six months from now. this new regulation provides a framework for market players to experiment the use of blockchain in real - life conditions to issue and trade tokenised securities. it also offers a unique opportunity for the eurosystem to conduct its own “ pilot regime ”, in close cooperation with private players. without overpromising on that pilot wholesale