SG-FORGE Signs 15 Crypto Clients as Europe’s Crypto Banking Rules Open Doors

Société Générale’s crypto arm is turning regulatory clarity into actual business, signing 15 crypto-native clients as Europe’s new rules make it easier for regulated firms to get banking access. The bigger picture: banks are no longer ignoring crypto, but stablecoin adoption and onchain finance are still far from the victory lap some suits would like to pretend.

• 15 crypto clients signed by SG-FORGE
• EU crypto rules are opening banking access
• Stablecoins are growing, but still tiny versus Tether and USDC
• “Corporate chain wars” are starting to take shape
• Perpetual futures remain mostly an offshore game

Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of SG-FORGE, said the bank is using relationships built with crypto-native companies to provide more traditional banking services.

“more and more we see the connections we have established with crypto native companies through Société Générale-Forge as a good way to deliver just traditional banking services to this entity.”

That’s bank-speak for a simple shift: crypto firms that were once treated like a compliance nuisance are now being viewed as customers worth keeping. The 15 clients SG-FORGE has signed include crypto exchanges, brokers, and wallet providers — the kinds of businesses that need accounts, settlement, fiat rails, and other boring but essential plumbing to keep operations moving.

Settlement means finalizing a trade or payment so both sides actually get what they’re owed. Fiat banking rails are the ordinary banking systems that move euros and dollars around. For crypto companies, having access to those rails can be the difference between running a real business and constantly fighting with banks that act like every blockchain address is a crime scene.

Europe’s rules are doing what regulators promised, for once

The expansion is tied to Europe’s new crypto rules, which took effect last year and gave regulated firms a clearer path to banking relationships. That matters. The old setup in many jurisdictions was a mess: banks were nervous, crypto firms were boxed out, and everyone pretended this would somehow remain manageable forever. It didn’t.

With a clearer framework, firms like SG-FORGE can serve crypto-native companies without the usual fog of uncertainty hanging over every decision. That doesn’t mean the sector has been fully normalized — far from it — but it does mean more banks are willing to engage instead of hiding behind risk committees and boilerplate excuses.

This is also where the business case gets interesting. Banks aren’t doing this out of the kindness of their polished little hearts. They want fees, deposits, treasury business, custody-adjacent services, and a foothold in the infrastructure that may one day support tokenized assets and onchain settlement. Crypto firms bring real flow. Real flow is what banks actually care about.

Stablecoins: progress, but don’t confuse it with dominance

Société Générale has also been building its own stablecoin strategy. The bank launched a euro-pegged stablecoin in 2023 and a dollar-pegged stablecoin in 2025. That’s a serious signal that a major European bank sees tokenized money as worth backing, not just mocking from the sidelines.

But the market is still brutally lopsided.

SocGen’s euro stablecoin has only €105 million in circulation. That’s not nothing, but it’s a speck compared with the heavyweights. Tether says it has $187 billion in dollar-pegged tokens outstanding, while USDC says it has $78.6 billion in circulation. Those are network effects. Those are distribution machines. Those are the numbers of products that are deeply embedded in crypto trading, payments, and liquidity management.

Bank-issued stablecoins may have compliance-friendly branding and a cleaner relationship with regulators, but the market does not hand out trophies for being respectable. Users care about liquidity, availability, exchange support, and utility. If your token can’t move where the activity is, it’s just a well-dressed spreadsheet entry.

Jean-Marc Stenger suggested demand for euro stablecoins could grow if crypto firms need local euro alternatives for European retail customers. That’s plausible. A euro-denominated stablecoin can reduce FX friction, support euro payments, and make settlement cleaner for businesses dealing with European users.

He also floated the idea of using stablecoins for cash and collateral management. That use case is still mostly theoretical, but it’s not crazy. In theory, stablecoins can move collateral faster than traditional banking systems and simplify treasury operations across borders. In practice, most large institutions are still testing the waters, not swimming laps.

RBC Capital Markets delivered the blunt reality check: the banks it surveyed saw stablecoins’ effect on liquidity and treasury management as “negligible.”

That does not mean stablecoins are irrelevant. It means the industry is still stuck between hype and actual adoption. A lot of firms like the idea of programmable money. Far fewer have rebuilt enough of their operations to use it meaningfully. There’s a big difference between saying “we’re exploring blockchain-based treasury tools” and actually putting real balance-sheet activity onchain.

The real fight is over who controls the rails

The stablecoin race is only one part of a bigger contest: where future financial activity will actually settle. VanEck’s CEO framed this as the rise of “corporate chain wars.”

“I think 2026, this is our thesis a little bit, is the year of the corporate chain wars.”

“Blockchains are shortened to chain.”

“What am I going to use as the transaction mechanism for Wall Street in the future? Is it going to be Ethereum? Is it going to be Solana? And then a lot of people were starting their own chains.”

That’s the battle in plain English: public chains versus private chains versus company-built chains. Ethereum and Solana are obvious candidates for tokenized finance and institutional settlement, but some firms would rather build their own controlled systems than rely on a public network they don’t fully own.

This is the old permissionless-versus-permissioned debate wearing a new suit. Public blockchains offer openness, portability, and interoperability. Private and corporate chains offer control, compliance comfort, and the ability to keep the keys in-house. The problem is obvious: the more control institutions want, the more they tend to recreate the same gatekeeping crypto was supposed to sidestep in the first place.

Bitcoin sits a little apart from that fight. It is not trying to be the operating system for Wall Street’s tokenized treasury stack. Nor should it. BTC’s role as a neutral, censorship-resistant monetary asset is different from the rails debate around stablecoins and corporate settlement chains. Not every blockchain has to do everything, despite the endless marketing nonsense pretending otherwise.

Perpetual futures are the other onshore/offshore brawl

While banks and stablecoin issuers fight over tokenized finance, the derivatives market is staring down its own migration problem. In the U.S., there is a push to bring perpetual futures trading onshore, especially if the Commodity Futures Trading Commission eventually allows more of these products inside regulated markets.

Perpetual futures are futures contracts with no expiration date. Traders use them to bet on price moves with leverage, which is exactly why they are hugely popular and exactly why they can be dangerous as hell. They are one of crypto’s most important trading tools — and one of its biggest sources of blowups when leverage gets stupid.

The industry is already positioning for a bigger U.S. market. Kraken’s parent agreed to buy Bitnomial for up to $550 million, a move tied to expanding access to perpetual-style products. Coinbase has launched long-dated futures designed to resemble perpetuals, and Robinhood says it is exploring similar products. Everyone wants a piece of the same prize: a regulated version of a product that already thrives offshore.

And thrive it does. CryptoQuant data showed perpetual futures volume hit $61.7 trillion in 2025, up 29% from 2024. That is a ridiculous number, but it also tells you something important: derivatives are one of crypto’s largest economic engines. A massive share of that activity is still happening on offshore venues such as Hyperliquid, an offshore blockchain-based exchange that has become a major hub for perpetual trading.

That’s the pattern across crypto in one neat little package: when the product works and the liquidity is there, traders go where the action is, not where a regulator wishes it were. If U.S. rules stay too restrictive, offshore venues keep the volume. If the rules loosen, onshore platforms will fight hard to pull that activity back home. Either way, the leverage market is not sitting still.

What this means for crypto banking and tokenized finance

SG-FORGE’s 15 crypto clients show that Europe’s regulatory approach is making a real difference. Banks are no longer pretending crypto companies are a temporary nuisance. They’re realizing these firms need financial services now, and that whoever provides those services can build durable business relationships for the next phase of digital finance.

But there’s a cautionary note hiding inside the optimism. Institutional adoption is not the same as mass adoption. Bank-issued stablecoins are still tiny compared with Tether and USDC. Treasury use cases are still more pilot than standard practice. Corporate chains may proliferate, but not all of them will matter. And some of the loudest claims around “onchain finance” are still just polished PowerPoint with a blockchain logo slapped on top.

The real shift is more incremental than the hype crowd wants to admit: regulated crypto businesses are getting better access to banks, banks are inching deeper into stablecoins and tokenization, and the infrastructure war over public chains, private chains, and derivatives venues is only getting started.

Key questions and answers

Why is SG-FORGE signing more crypto clients?
Europe’s new crypto rules have made it easier for regulated firms to get banking access, and SG-FORGE already has relationships with crypto-native businesses.

What kinds of crypto firms are using SG-FORGE?
Crypto exchanges, brokers, and wallet providers.

Is Société Générale becoming a major stablecoin issuer?
Not yet. It has launched euro- and dollar-pegged stablecoins, but usage is still very small compared with Tether and USDC.

Why do banks care about stablecoins?
Stablecoins can support payments, settlement, and treasury workflows, while giving banks a foothold in tokenized finance.

Are stablecoins changing treasury management right now?
Not much, according to RBC Capital Markets, which said their effect on liquidity and treasury management was “negligible.”

What are “corporate chain wars”?
It refers to the competition over which blockchain networks will handle future institutional activity — public chains like Ethereum or Solana, or company-built private chains.

Why do perpetual futures matter so much?
They drive huge trading volumes and huge risks, making them one of crypto’s most important and dangerous products.

Where is most perpetual futures activity happening today?
A large share is still on offshore venues, including Hyperliquid.

What is the main takeaway for Bitcoin and crypto markets?
Crypto is moving deeper into mainstream finance, but the adoption is uneven. Banks are engaging, stablecoins are growing, and derivatives are enormous — yet the real fight is still over who controls the rails.