The total market capitalization of Euro stablecoins has surpassed $400 million, with growth of over 170% since the beginning of this year. This increase is primarily driven by regulatory support from the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and market diversification demands, indicating that the Euro crypto ecosystem is undergoing a profound liquidity reshaping.
(Background: France’s Paris Bank and 10 European banks are launching Qivalis Euro stablecoin, planning to go live in the second half of 2026)
(Additional context: Deutsche Bank’s “EURAU” Euro stablecoin launched: certified under MiCA and German regulations, will Europe’s payment landscape be rewritten?)

Table of Contents

• Providing compliant entry tickets, regulatory certainty as a growth driver
• From risk hedging to arbitrage allocation, another catalyst for scale growth
• Multi-chain deployment and application strategies jointly advancing, EURC accounts for 70% of market share
• Traditional banks enter the scene, CBDC also eyeing the market

Amid a global stablecoin landscape exceeding $300 billion, dominated by USD assets accounting for 99%, a non-mainstream category is quietly making a comeback.

Dune data shows that the total market cap of Euro stablecoins recently broke through $400 million, with growth exceeding 170% since the start of the year.

In the face of the massive size of USD stablecoins, Euro stablecoins only account for 0.14% of the global market, but this force should not be underestimated. Under the increasingly stringent requirements of the EU’s MiCA and tightening regulatory walls, this countertrend surge indicates that the Euro crypto ecosystem is experiencing a deep liquidity reshaping.

A silent Euro on-chain war may have already begun, perhaps marking a turning point for Euro stablecoins from the fringe to mainstream markets.

Providing compliant entry tickets, regulatory certainty as a growth driver

The most puzzling aspect of the countertrend growth of Euro stablecoins is the regulatory pressure behind it. From a traditional finance perspective, strict regulation usually implies limited market vitality. However, market logic often defies intuition: harsh rules can eliminate uncertainties for capital entry.

After the collapses of FTX and Terra, global capital fears of unlicensed assets far outweigh resistance to strict regulation. Although MiCA sets thresholds, it also provides compliant entry tickets for large financial institutions and stablecoin issuers.

Before the full implementation of MiCA, the Euro stablecoin market was fragmented with inconsistent rules across member states. In June 2024, MiCA’s provisions on stablecoins will officially take effect, requiring issuers to obtain licenses from EU member states’ electronic money institutions or credit institutions.

In essence, this high entry barrier acts as a gatekeeper. Under the MiCA framework, non-compliant stablecoins that cannot meet 100% reserve requirements, monthly third-party audits, and full redemption at any time must exit the European market.

Suddenly, the market sentiment turned fearful, and stablecoin giant Tether was forced to withdraw from Europe. The significant supply-side cleanup left a large vacuum for compliant issuers like Circle. Dune data shows that within 18 months of MiCA’s implementation, the monthly trading volume of major Euro stablecoins surged from $197 million to $3.1 billion, an increase of approximately 15.74 times.

More importantly, MiCA introduced a “passport” mechanism, allowing any issuer licensed in one member state to operate across the EU. For European top CEXs (centralized exchanges) like Bitstamp and Casp providers like Bitpanda, delisting non-compliant USDT trading pairs and shifting to MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoins (such as EURC) is not only a regulatory requirement but also a necessary move to avoid potential sanctions. Clearly, regulation has shifted from optional to essential for survival, directly fueling the real growth of Euro stablecoins.

From risk hedging to arbitrage allocation, another catalyst for scale growth

Exchange rate appreciation is another hidden pillar supporting the growth of Euro stablecoins. Between late 2024 and 2025, the repeated US inflation expectations and the resilience shown by macroeconomic data in the Eurozone form the underlying logic for Euro’s appreciation against the US dollar.

For crypto investors, holding Euro stablecoins not only meets on-chain hedging needs but also serves as a means for forex arbitrage and diversification.

When the Euro appreciates relative to the dollar, prudent capital tends to shift funds into Euro-denominated assets to hedge against dollar weakness. Investors holding Euro stablecoins, with unchanged asset face value, will gain additional fiat purchasing power. For European domestic investors, especially institutions needing cross-currency risk hedging, converting idle USD stablecoins into Euro stablecoins can hedge currency risk and capture positive exchange rate movements.

In this macro cycle, due to positive exchange rate expectations, the holding cost of Euro stablecoins is actually lower than that of USD stablecoins. This currency arbitrage behavior has invisibly boosted the scale of Euro stablecoins, creating a wave of passive capital inflow.

Additionally, global concerns over over-reliance on USD settlement systems have further intensified this year. Especially with changes in US tariffs and geopolitical tensions, some international trade entities are seeking alternatives. As the world’s second-largest reserve currency, the digital Euro—Euro stablecoins—has become the preferred choice for non-US entities conducting cross-border on-chain settlements.

Chainalysis data shows that after April this year, following the implementation of US tariff policies, there has been a significant shift from USD-denominated to EUR-denominated transactions. During this phase, EURC’s trading volume growth far outpaced USDC, reflecting market demand for diversified foreign exchange reserves.

Multi-chain deployment and application strategies jointly advancing, EURC accounts for 70% of market share

Within the Euro stablecoin market of $400 million, Circle once again demonstrates its dominance as a compliant giant.

Dune data shows that the supply of Circle’s EURC has approached $300 million, accounting for about 70% of the market share, serving as the main engine driving the overall growth of Euro stablecoins.

Circle’s key advantage lies in proactive early deployment. Before MiCA’s implementation, Circle obtained an electronic money license in France, subjecting itself to French prudential regulation and clearinghouse oversight. This made it the first mainstream player to be “licensed and operational” after MiCA took effect.

The transparency of EURC’s reserves is fundamental to gaining user trust. According to its public audit reports, EURC’s reserve management aligns with the highest standards under the MiCA framework.

However, compliance is just the entry ticket; capturing market share requires an ecosystem. EURC is not limited to the Ethereum mainnet but has launched multi-chain expansion strategies.

Ethereum: The main venue for large institutional settlements, carrying about 60% of the circulation.

Base: Leveraging Coinbase’s large retail user base, EURC’s applications on Base chain are rapidly expanding into small payments and daily social transactions.

Solana: With extremely high TPS and low fees, it has become the top choice for high-frequency forex trading and arbitrage.

Stellar: Deep integration with payment giants like Visa and Wirex enables EURC to achieve 24/7 real-time settlement, optimizing cross-border remittance costs.

The real breakthrough may occur in application scenarios. On December 12, EURC announced integration into World App, which has 37 million users, potentially injecting significant retail momentum, allowing users to send EURC directly within chat applications.

As a market leader, EURC’s expansion has directly driven a qualitative change in the overall scale of Euro stablecoins. As liquidity accumulates beyond a certain threshold, EURC is transitioning from a store of value to a payment medium. Today, Visa is using EURC on the Stellar network for settlement, possibly marking the official entry of Euro stablecoins into mainstream financial infrastructure.

Traditional banks enter the scene, CBDC also eyeing the market

Circle is not resting easy. As the market grows, traditional financial giants are beginning to compete. SG-FORGE, a subsidiary of Société Générale, issuing EURCV, is a typical example.

Unlike EURC’s Web3 roots, EURCV flows with genuine banking blood. Its initial purpose was to provide compliant on-chain cash tools for tokenized securities and retail payments. Payment giant DECTA released a report indicating EURCV’s transaction volume grew by 343.26% in 2025, mainly due to its adoption in European institutional-grade repos and bond tokenization settlements.

Compared to EURC, EURCV’s credit backing comes directly from top-tier commercial banks, which is a significant advantage in traditional financial scenarios that are highly sensitive to counterparty risk.

In addition to Société Générale, several other European banks, including Banco Santander in Spain, have launched stablecoin experiments this year. These “silver-haired stablecoins,” backed by existing large bank deposits, may unleash strong on-chain migration capabilities at a future critical moment.

Above all market participants, the shadow of public sector pressure looms. The European Central Bank’s push for digital euro (CBDC) remains the biggest uncertainty facing private Euro stablecoins.

ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone emphasized: “To maintain European monetary sovereignty, it is necessary to issue public digital cash.” Yesterday (December 18), ECB President Christine Lagarde also stated: “The ECB has completed preparations for the digital euro; now it awaits political action.”

Compared to Euro stablecoins, CBDC has inherent advantages in legal status, holding limits, and infrastructure access. If CBDC can offer higher user convenience and zero-cost structures in the future, it could directly challenge existing Euro stablecoins.

The ECB’s deeper concern lies in financial stability, always questioning whether stablecoins could trigger bank runs. According to ECB analysis, if large retail deposits are converted into Euro stablecoins, it may weaken traditional banks’ lending capacity. Meanwhile, since stablecoin reserves are stored in banks, a wave of on-chain redemptions could cause sudden liquidity pressures on the banking system.

To prevent this risk, MiCA will impose stricter regulations on Euro stablecoins, requiring their reserves to be held at banks with a reserve ratio increased to 60%. These ongoing compliance costs may limit the future expansion of Euro stablecoins.

This also presents a fundamental contradiction: Euro stablecoins thrive under a compliant framework, yet their regulators are actively planning CBDC that could replace them. The competition between “official” and “private” will be the biggest variable for Euro stablecoins in the coming years.

The rapid growth of Euro stablecoins may foreshadow a long-term trend: as regulation settles, global investors will no longer be satisfied solely with USD stablecoins, and the ecosystem for Euro stablecoins is rapidly filling in.

Meanwhile, as RWA (Real World Asset) tokenization and cross-border settlement demands deepen, Euro stablecoins may be on the verge of large-scale adoption. This Europe-led game has only just begun.