Criticism has been leveled at a new euro-pegged stablecoin released in France due to a decision to restrict peer-to-peer transactions.

French bank Societe Generale-Forge (SGF) released the Ethereum-based stablecoin called EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) on April 20 which is available to only qualified institutional clients.

According to observers who reviewed its smart contract code, ERC-20 transfers need to first be approved by a centralized registrar — presumably one controlled by the bank — before the transaction is processed.

In an April 20 tweet, pseudonymous smart contract engineer “alephv.eth” explained:

“They coded it so they have to whitelist all users, process all user transfers, and even process your ERC20 approvals before they process your 'transferFrom' lmao.”