A group of nine European banks plan to join forces to develop a euro stablecoin in order to combat the U.S. dollar’s domination within the stablecoin market.
Summary
- Nine European banks including UniCredit, Banca Sella, DekaBank, and ING to name a few are launching a MiCA compliant euro-backed stablecoin in 2026.
- The venture will apply for an e-money license from the Dutch central bank while opening themselves up to banks interested in joining the group.
- The euro stablecoin market is predicted to reach as high as $1 trillion in market cap, despite still lagging behind the U.S. dollar pegged stablecoins.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, nine European have teamed up to establish a new company in the Netherlands to house the euro stablecoin project. The consortium plans to launch a euro-backed stablecoin compliant under the MiCA regulatory framework.
Based on the report, the euro stablecoin is set to be launched sometime within the second half of 2026.
In addition, the group of nine said that it is currently open to other banks joining the initiative alongside them.
So far, the list of banks involved in the venture include UniCredit SpA, ING Groep NV, DekaBank, Banca Sella, KBC Group NV, Danske Bank AS, SEB AB, CaixaBank SA and Raiffeisen Bank International AG. All the banks are based in Europe.
Based on a statement from DekaBank, the venture will apply for an e-money license from the Dutch central bank, aiming to set a European digital payments standard. The group aims to create an established European alternative to the stablecoin market that is mostly dominated by the U.S. dollar.
According to data from DeFi Llama, the total stablecoin market value has reached a historic all-time high at $295.7 billion. Over the past week, this number has risen by nearly $5 billion, indicating the rapid growth of the stablecoin market.
The leading stablecoin by market cap remains USDT (USDT), Tether’s USD-backed stablecoin. The stablecoin currently holds the largest market cap with $173.3 billion, making up nearly 60% of the total stablecoin market cap.
The dawn of euro stablecoins?
This is not the first time the financial services industry has decided to launch a euro stablecoin. Societe Generale-FORGE had already beaten the group to the punch by launching the euro-pegged EUR CoinVertible or EURCV back in April 2023. The token is said to be a MiCA-compliant stablecoin on the Solana (SOL) network.
At the moment, euro stablecoins contribute $637 million of the total stablecoin market cap. Circle’s EURC (EURC) leads the charge with $259.67 million and a trading volume of $42 million in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, in second place is EURS (EURS) with a market cap of $144.93 million. EURCV stands in third place with a market cap of $65.99 million.
Back in July 2025, Schuman Financial founder Martin Bruncko said that the rise of euro stablecoins is “inevitable.” Bruncko predicted that euro stablecoins is poised to surpass €100 billion ($117.4 billion) in market cap, and potentially reach €1 trillion ($1.17 trillion), despite currently lagging behind U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins.
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