Circle Launches Euro-Backed Stablecoin

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is launching a new fiat-backed digital asset called Euro Coin (EUROC), the company said on Thursday.

The new Euro Coin will initially launch on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token on June 30, with more supported networks to follow later this year.

Circle states in an accompanying press release that Euro Coin is fully-backed by euro-denominated reserves “held conservatively in the custody of leading financial institutions within the U.S. regulatory perimeter, beginning with Silvergate Bank.”

“Euro Coin is being issued under a regulated framework for money transmission, under the same statutes that regulate USDC, with full-reserves in Euro,” Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote in a tweet.

He added that Euro Coin will have “the same security, liquidity and transparency” as USDC, the industry’s second-largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of $54.5 billion.

Most recently, USDC was launched on Polygon, an interoperability and scaling framework for building Ethereum-compatible blockchains.

“Euro Coin expands opportunities for payments, on-chain FX, trade finance, commerce and broader digital asset markets use-cases,” continued Allaire. “The launch is symbolic of a shift in crypto markets towards greater and greater utility value from blockchain infrastructure.”

Euro Coin launch partners

Per the company’s blog post, once trading begins, Euro Coin will be available to non-Circle users on crypto exchanges, such as Binance.US, Bitstamp, FTX, and Huobi Global, and popular decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including Compound, Curve, and Uniswap.

Other partners include custody service providers Anchorage Digital, CYBAVO, and Fireblocks, as well as hardware wallet Ledger and MetaMask Institutional, an institution-compliant version of the popular DeFi wallet.

"There is clear market demand for a digital currency denominated in euros, the world's second most traded currency after the U.S. dollar,” said Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire.

According to Allaire, by offering USDC and Euro Coin, the company “is helping to unlock a new era of fast, inexpensive, secure and interoperable value exchange worldwide."

While Circle’s euro-backed stablecoin stablecoin will be officially rolled out at the end of the month, the company noted that developers can begin integrating with the Euro Coin smart contract already today, ahead of the launch.