The Ethereum-based stablecoin was launched on April 20 and is only available to qualified institutional clients. Smart contract engineers who reviewed its code discovered that its ERC-20 transfers require approval from a centralized registrar, presumably controlled by the bank, before processing the transaction. Pseudonymous smart contract engineer “alephv.eth” criticized the code, stating that users needed to be whitelisted and that the stablecoin was “a radical commitment to inefficiency in the name of the regulation.” Nonfungible token project founder “foobar” also expressed negative views on the code, calling it the “worst code I’ve ever seen” and describing the stablecoin as a “laughing stock.” Crypto researcher Mason Versluis tweeted that the code was “absolutely horrible” and suggested that the French bank should “stop trying to weasel” into crypto. Despite the criticism, Ether investor Ryan Berckman provided a more neutral analysis, stating that many traditional financial firms such as SGF will take “baby steps” as they move into blockchain and digital assets. He expects more banks to follow suit in the months to come, adding that he is “certain” SGF won’t be the last bank to launch a stablecoin on a public network. SGF has launched a new euro-pegged stablecoin called EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), which is not meant for public use and is exclusively available to qualified institutional clients. The stablecoin has been designed to act as a bridge between traditional capital markets and the digital assets ecosystem. In line with this, the stablecoin is subject to KYC and AML procedures, with the bank reviewing and approving all ERC-20 transfers before processing. The stablecoin EURCV was minted on Ethereum in April, with a total of 10 million tokens. Interestingly, all tokens are held by one wallet address. The rising need for a new settlement asset to handle on-chain transactions led to the launch of the stablecoin.French bank Societe Generale-Forge (SGF) has received criticism for its newly released euro-pegged stablecoin called EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), which restricts peer-to-peer transactions.
