When French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently unveiled their joint economic agenda at the Franco-German Council of Ministers, one proposal stood out: pursuing collaboration and equivalence regimes with third countries in the field of crypto-asset regulation. It was a recognition that digital money, like data, does not stop at borders. And it was a timely reminder that stablecoins — the fastest-growing part of digital finance and crypto — will only fully succeed if regulators match their borderless design with cross-border collaboration.Stablecoins: A Payments Upgrade, Not Just a Crypto ToolStablecoins are internet-native money: always on, borderless, programmable and available to anyone with a smartphone. Unlike traditional payment rails, they don’t close on weekends, don’t rely on complex correspondent banking networks and can move value between Bangkok and Boston in seconds. In many ways, they are the first serious upgrade to cross-border payments since SWIFT in the 1970s. Where SWIFT was a messaging network innovation to connect counterparty banks, stablecoins marry messaging with settlement to create a payments innovation breakthrough.But their value proposition depends on being global. A patchwork of divergent national rulebooks would turn the “internet of value” into fragmented payment intranets — undermining the very efficiency and accessibility that make stablecoins transformative.Converging Principles, Different PathsThe good news: the world’s leading regulatory frameworks for stablecoins — Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and America’s GENIUS Act — already share the same foundation. Both require full 1:1 reserves in high-quality liquid assets, redemption at par, regular public reporting and strict governance, risk and anti-money laundering (AML) standards. Both allow issuance by banks and non-banks alike.There are, of course, differences. GENIUS imposes tighter reserve rules (limited to short-dated Treasuries and reverse repos), while MiCA allows a broader mix, including longer-duration government bonds or even covered bonds, but also requires high minimum bank deposit ratios (30% or 60% of the reserve depending on token size). GENIUS requires monthly attestations, while MiCA mandates a white paper at launch. MiCA places issuance caps on non-euro stablecoins at scale; GENIUS creates strict barriers for Big Tech issuers and segregation requirements for banks aiming to launch stablecoins. These are examples of important differences, but they pale in comparison to the core alignment on what a safe, credible stablecoin looks like.Foreign Issuers: Recognition vs. Multi-IssuanceWhere the frameworks diverge most is in how they treat foreign issuers.GENIUS introduces an explicit equivalence regime: stablecoins from “comparable jurisdictions” could be offered directly in the U.S. without duplicative licensing. That means that in the future, subject to U.S. Treasury Department approval, MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins could likely be offered to the entire U.S. market without the need for additional, local U.S. licenses.MiCA, by contrast, requires foreign issuers to set up a licensed EU entity and comply with all local requirements, including the need for local reserves, issuance and redemption, and disclosures proportionate to the EU share of the issuer’s holdings and activities — the so-called multi-issuance approach.That difference reflects timing more than philosophy: the EU went first, seeking to bring global stablecoins into its perimeter after Libra published its first white paper in 2019. From its earliest impact assessments, Brussels warned against allowing foreign, non-EU issuers to escape oversight. MiCA even mandates data sharing by exchanges to help issuers better calculate their EU footprint and enable supervisors to monitor foreign issuers’ activities. Back when MiCA was adopted in 2023, it was too early to introduce a full equivalence regime. Still, the EU Commission was tasked with reviewing whether an equivalence regime could complement its approach in its interim review that is due this year. And the political signal is clear: Macron and Merz explicitly called for cross-border collaboration and building reciprocity mechanisms for stablecoins with trusted partners. The transatlantic stars are aligning.International Collaboration Cannot WaitThe next 12–24 months will be decisive. With MiCA and GENIUS as key reference frameworks, the policy focus will shift from drafting rules to aligning them. The opportunity is enormous: a coordinated transatlantic approach would give businesses and consumers confidence that a fully backed, transparent redeemable digital euro or dollar-based stablecoin is the same payment instrument on either side of the Atlantic, independent of where it is licensed. It would also give other major economies a strong template to connect to — ensuring stablecoins evolve into a global public good rather than a regulatory race to the bottom.Failing to align would be costly. Corporations need stablecoins in multiple currencies to manage and modernize FX flows and global supply chains. Consumers also need access to liquid, widely used tokens on regulated local trading venues. Without collaboration, the vacuum will be filled either by unregulated offshore actors or by fragmented national systems that cut themselves off from global liquidity, utility, and economic activity.The Monetary Sequel to the Open WebTwo decades ago, regulators resisted carving the internet into national intranets — and the open web flourished. Today we face the monetary sequel. Stablecoins can finish what the internet started: making value itself as open, programmable, and global as information.If the EU, U.S., and other jurisdictions seize this moment to build recognition and reciprocity, stablecoins will become the backbone of real-time, global commerce and usher in a new era of global economic prosperity through the frictionless cross-border exchange of value.