The "Golden Age" of Euro-Denominated Stablecoins: How Investors Can Profit from Them

As of July 1, companies issuing euro-pegged stablecoins in the EU have had their moment in the spotlight: major issuers of dollar-pegged tokens that were unable to obtain a special MiCA license have exited the market. How will these companies capitalize on this opportunity, and how can investors profit from it?

As of July 6, 2026, Revolut’s European customers can no longer purchase USDT, the stablecoin pegged to the dollar with the highest daily trading volume. By the end of the month, the digital bank will stop supporting deposits in USDT, and by August 31, it will convert any remaining balances into the customer’s base currency.

Revolut remained one of the few fintech companies in Europe that allowed transactions in USDT after July 1. Prior to that date, crypto companies and platforms dealing in digital assets were required to obtain a pan-European license under the MiCA regulation—the world’s first set of rules for the crypto market, adopted by the EU. Without it, they could no longer serve European customers. However, the issuer of USDT—Tether—refused to obtain it.

A number of crypto projects had already discontinued support for transactions involving dollar-pegged stablecoins. For example, Kraken did so in the spring of 2026, and Crypto.com did so a year earlier.

One of MiCA’s restrictions is the limits on daily transaction volume (up to €200 million) or the number of transactions (up to 1 million), but these apply only to tokens pegged to a non-European currency. For cryptoassets pegged to the euro, there are no such restrictions.

How will their issuers take advantage of this free rein?

Oninvest reported to the European Banking Authority (EBA) that 37 euro-denominated stablecoins have already received a MiCA license in the EU.

In the second half of 2026, another platform— Qivalis—will launch. It is a joint project by a consortium of 10 of Europe’s largest banks, including ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank, KBC, and BNP Paribas. It will focus on blockchain infrastructure for European banks and their corporate clients, according to cryptocurrency market analyst Viktor Pershikov. At the time of publication, Qivalis had not responded to Oninvest’s questions regarding the exact launch date and business development plans.

An EBA spokesperson declined to assess the growth trends and size of the euro-denominated stablecoin market, but noted that he sees signs of an expansion in the use cases for such coins compared to last year.

The dollar- and euro-denominated stablecoin markets are still incomparable. According to CoinGecko, the total market capitalization of all stablecoins pegged to the euro reached $786.9 million in July, compared to $299.28 billion for all dollar-denominated stablecoins.

There are only eight truly liquid coins on the European crypto market, according to a report by the European payment system DECTA. These are the EURC stablecoin from Circle, EURCV from Societe Generale’s subsidiary SG-Forge, EURE from Monerium, EUROP from Schuman Financial, EURR from StabIR, EURAU from AllUnity, EURI from Banking Circle, and EURQ from Quantoz Payments.

Their combined market capitalization had grown by 128% year-over-year as of early July, reaching $673.9 million. Trading volume increased by 43.1%, but nearly all of this growth was driven by three tokens—EURC, EURCV, and EURI. Circle’s EURC leads in trading volume.

Kirill Komalenkov believes that the success of EURC is also due to the reputation of its issuer. Circle is well-known in the market, in part because of its issuance of USDC: when the company launched the new token, it didn’t have to explain who it was or whether it could be trusted.

At the same time, this token’s share of trading in euro-denominated stablecoins fell from 58.2% to 40.5% between June 30, 2025, and June 28, 2026—with EURCV and EURCV regaining some of that share.

EURCV was launched by Société Générale in April 2023 for its institutional clients, Komalenkov notes. By December, it had already appeared on Bitstamp—one of the world’s oldest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, founded back in 2011. The token’s primary use cases include on-chain settlements between companies and financial participants, cross-border payments, and collateral for tokenized assets, such as bonds. It is also integrated into the Deutsche Börse/Clearstream ecosystem for settlements, collateralization, treasury operations, and clearing.

EURI is launching Banking Circle, a Luxembourg-based bank operating in the B2B segment and serving over 750 payment companies and financial institutions. The token is also designed for specific corporate use cases—currency risk management for treasury departments, instant settlements for digital assets, and cross-border payments—and has been integrated with Binance Pay and Fireblocks since its launch, Komalenkov explains.

Euros-denominated stablecoin issuers face the challenge of offering products that provide added value for their customers, says an EBA spokesperson.

Companies shouldn’t try to “conquer the global market” or catch up to the dollar-denominated segment in terms of market capitalization, according to Alexander Höptner, CEO of AllUnity (the issuer of the EURAU stablecoin). Their goal is different: to make tokens the default settlement currency for European financial systems on the blockchain. According to him, this is precisely the direction AllUnity has chosen as its priority. This approach will solve one of the market’s main problems—the issue of liquidity—which will no longer depend on trader sentiment, Höptner told Oninvest.

The other issuers of the largest euro-denominated stablecoins either did not respond to Oninvest’s inquiry or declined to comment.

One way for stablecoin issuers and their holders to generate income is through loans in euros. Tokens can be lent out simply by transferring them to a lending pool. Anyone can become a “liquidity provider,” according to a Paragraph article based on a report on DeFi lending in 2026. However, institutional players still dominate this market. In this case, the cryptocurrency protocol connects borrowers and lenders, says Alexander Peresichan, CEO of Technobit.

For example, investors in EURC on the Aave and Morpho platforms have earned 3–6% per year on their loans this year. That’s higher than the average deposit rate at a European bank. But for USDT, the yield on lending pools will be higher, Komalenkov adds. According to DexLender, the average interest rate on USDT loans is 4–8% (this is the annualized yield based on 30-day results), and the maximum rate can exceed 10%.

"EURC is the most liquid token; it can be deposited into pools on Aave and Morpho," Kirill Komalenkov explains. The EURCV token is typically used by institutional investors, while EURI is rarely used in pools.

In addition, stablecoins can be invested in tokenized money market funds that invest in government securities. For example, the Spiko fund yields a return of about 4–7% on Treasury bills, Komalenkov adds.

As for using them for transfers outside the EU, this is technically possible because they operate on a blockchain and every transaction is recorded in a distributed ledger, says Kirill Komalenkov. However, not all services will be able to accept euro-pegged stablecoins, partly due to regulatory requirements. For example, such tokens are not available on Binance.

Oninvest has identified two major risks for issuers of euro-pegged stablecoins. One of them is the concentration of reserves for all tokens in accounts held at a limited number of European banks. The risk is that problems at a single financial institution could paralyze the entire stablecoin’s operations.

The EBA recognizes this risk as significant. It plans to mitigate it through regulatory technical standards. These standards require that a token-issuing company hold at least 30% of its reserves in bank deposits; and for issuers of popular cryptocurrencies—those with large market capitalization, high trading volumes, and a high number of transactions—this percentage increases to 60%. However, reserves cannot be held entirely at a single bank—no more than 10% of reserves may be held at any one bank (5% for smaller banks); in the case of banking groups, the limit is 30% of the reserves held.

While these standards are being adopted, issuers are distributing their reserves among several credit institutions in the European Economic Area to avoid dependence on a single bank or banking group. For example, this is how AllUnity protects itself against concentration risk.

Another risk is complex regulatory requirements. Stablecoins are classified as Electronic Money Tokens and must be fully backed by reserves in fiat currency or other liquid assets. The issuer is required to undergo an audit and comply with anti-money laundering requirements. If the issuer’s license is revoked, its token loses the right to be traded on exchanges, Peresichan notes. Companies are also required to obtain an EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license, which grants the right to issue electronic money, create e-wallets, and provide payment services. In addition, they must be registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority.

The need to constantly maintain reserves and comply with numerous requirements makes the product suitable for banks and institutional investors, although this raises the cost of entry and limits flexibility. “This is a constraint on scaling. Growth will be slow, since we’re talking about corporate and institutional users, and these folks don’t like to rush things,” concludes Peresichan.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor