The thirty-second version

EURC is a euro-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle Mint France SAS, a French-licensed subsidiary of Circle Internet Group. The token launched on Ethereum in June 2022, with subsequent deployments on Avalanche, Solana, Stellar, Base and a handful of other networks. EURC operates under the MiCA framework as an "e-money token" (EMT) — the specific stablecoin classification that MiCA applies to fiat-referenced tokens. As of mid-2026, EURC circulating supply sits at approximately 200 to 250 million, far below USDC and orders of magnitude below USDT, but growing through institutional and on-chain FX use cases.

Issuer
Circle Mint France SAS, a Circle subsidiary. Licensed as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) by ACPR France.
Regulatory classification
E-money token (EMT) under MiCA. Subject to the EMT-specific rules within the broader MiCA framework.
Launch date
Ethereum: June 30, 2022. Solana: 2023. Avalanche, Stellar, Base, others: 2023-2024.
Reserve composition
100% in euros, held as cash deposits at European banks plus short-dated euro-area government securities and money-market instruments.
Primary trading venues
Kraken, Bitstamp, Coinbase (EUR-quoted pairs), Binance (limited), on-chain DEXs.

What MiCA actually requires

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Regulation EU 2023/1114) was adopted in May 2023 and entered into force in stages. The stablecoin-specific provisions came into application on June 30, 2024; the broader crypto-asset service provider provisions came into application on December 30, 2024. The framework distinguishes three categories of crypto-asset:

  • Asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) — tokens referenced to a basket of currencies, commodities, or other assets. The category includes proposed basket-backed stablecoins and is subject to the most restrictive of MiCA's rules. No ART has yet been issued at scale.
  • E-money tokens (EMTs) — tokens referenced to a single official currency. Fiat-backed stablecoins like EURC and USDC fall here. Issuers must be authorised as either a credit institution or an EMI; reserves must be 1:1, in highly liquid instruments, with redemption at par.
  • Other crypto-assets — everything else, including most utility tokens. Subject to lighter disclosure and conduct rules.

For EMT issuers specifically, MiCA imposes:

  • Authorisation in the EU. Issuer must be an EU-incorporated entity, authorised as a credit institution or an EMI by the competent national authority. Circle's path is via ACPR France as an EMI.
  • Reserve composition. Reserves must equal at least 100% of the value of outstanding EMTs. Reserves must be held in liquid, low-risk instruments — typically cash deposits at credit institutions and short-dated government securities. Restrictions on concentration with any single counterparty.
  • Segregation. Reserve assets must be segregated from the issuer's corporate assets, held with custodians, and not used for the issuer's own operations.
  • Redemption at par. Holders must be able to redeem at par with the issuer, on demand, without fee. The redemption obligation is a strict legal duty under MiCA, not a contractual commitment.
  • Disclosure. Monthly reporting of reserve composition, with annual audit. Publication of a white paper (the MiCA equivalent of a prospectus) before issuance.
  • Caps for non-euro EMTs. The thresholds that trigger heightened supervision are higher for EUR-denominated tokens than for non-EUR. This is one of the structural reasons EURC has an easier compliance path within MiCA than USDC does for EU activity.

How Circle structured for MiCA

Circle established Circle Mint France SAS in 2023, with EMI authorisation completed in 2024. The French entity is the issuer of both EURC and the MiCA-compliant version of USDC distributed in the EU. The US entity (Circle Internet Financial LLC, now Circle Internet Group post-IPO) continues to issue USDC for non-EU markets. The bifurcation — same brand, same token symbol, two legal issuers — is novel and has produced some confusion in the market about which USDC a given holder owns. For EURC there is no such bifurcation: the French entity is the sole issuer worldwide.

The choice of France as the licensing jurisdiction is partly historical (Circle had operating presence there) and partly strategic. ACPR — the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution — is one of the more sophisticated supervisory bodies in the EU for fintech, with established processes for EMI authorisation that pre-date MiCA. The licensing experience runs ahead of some other EU regulators in this area, which makes the French path more predictable.

What EURC reserves actually contain

Circle publishes monthly reserve attestations for EURC alongside the USDC attestations. The breakdown reported in recent reports:

  • Approximately 80 to 85% in cash deposits at EU credit institutions. Multiple counterparty banks; concentration limits apply under MiCA.
  • Approximately 10 to 15% in short-dated euro-area government securities (German Bunds, French OATs, Dutch DSLs predominantly, all under 90-day maturity).
  • Approximately 0 to 5% in euro-area money-market fund holdings and overnight repos with central counterparties.

The cash share is meaningfully higher than for USDC, which sits at roughly 15 to 20% cash with the bulk in the BlackRock Circle Reserve Fund holding T-bills. The reason is structural: the eurozone short-dated government securities market is smaller and less consistently liquid than the US T-bill market, which makes a cash-heavy posture rational for an EUR-denominated stablecoin. The trade-off is yield: EURC reserves earn meaningfully less than USDC reserves earn, which constrains Circle's economics on the EUR product.

Why EURC adoption is slower than the framework suggests

The MiCA framework was widely expected to produce a step-change in EUR stablecoin adoption. The actual numbers have been more modest. As of mid-2026, total euro stablecoin circulation across all issuers (EURC, EURI, EURS, EURT, and a handful of smaller tokens) sits at roughly 400 to 500 million, against a USD stablecoin market of approximately 270 billion. The ratio is wider than the underlying USD-to-EUR currency-pair share in any other market.

Several reasons:

The crypto trading market is dollar-denominated. The vast majority of cross-pair trading on global venues uses USDT or USDC as the quote currency. Euro-quoted pairs exist on European venues (Bitstamp, Kraken) but are a small share of global volume. EURC has limited utility for arbitrage or for cross-venue trading unless the trader specifically wants euro exposure.

Banking-the-traditional-way works in Europe. The euro area has functioning real-time payment rails (SEPA Instant Credit Transfer), low fees, and broadly trustworthy banks. The unmet need that USD stablecoins address in developing markets (poor banking, currency controls, dollarisation pressure) is mostly absent in the EU. The marginal European user has less reason to hold EURC than the marginal Turkish or Argentine user has to hold USDT.

Yield is concentrated on the USD side. US T-bill yields running 4 to 5% throughout 2023-2025 drove substantial flows into USDC and USDT-equivalent yield products. Euro money-market yields were lower over the same period (ECB deposit rate peaked at 4% before easing), reducing the attractiveness of EUR stablecoin yield strategies for European holders.

The "safe EUR digital asset" demand is partly captured by the digital euro project. The ECB's wholesale and retail digital-euro work, while still in pilot, has absorbed some of the policy oxygen that might otherwise have flowed to private EUR stablecoins. Holders looking for "regulated EUR digital money" can credibly wait for the ECB product.

Where EURC is actually being used

The growth pockets are real but specific. Three areas the desk tracks:

On-chain FX between USDC and EURC. The USDC-EURC pair on Uniswap and Curve has become one of the more reliable on-chain FX venues for euros to dollars and back. Spreads are competitive with traditional FX channels for sizes up to a few million and settle in seconds.

European corporate treasury for crypto-native firms. A growing number of EU-incorporated crypto firms hold operating balances in EURC rather than EUR bank deposits. The rationale: 24/7 transferability, MiCA-supervised issuer, no deposit-insurance ceiling concern at the bank level (since reserves are segregated at the issuer level instead). The use case is small in absolute terms but is the demographic where EURC has the strongest market fit.

Cross-border B2B in EUR-active markets. Some merchants and platforms accepting payments from EU customers route through EURC to consolidate flows before converting. The use case overlaps with what PYUSD is trying to build in commerce; EURC's footprint here is small but stable.

Spread note. The EURC-USD effective rate via Coinbase's USDC-EURC pair has tracked the spot EURUSD rate within 5 to 15 basis points on most days, comparable to or better than retail FX channels (Wise, Revolut Standard, retail bank FX). For sizes above approximately 50,000 EUR-USD equivalent, the on-chain channel becomes notably better than retail FX. This is one of the more underrated EURC use cases.

How EURC compares to other EUR stablecoins

EURI — Banking Circle's euro stablecoin, launched in 2024 with Binance as the primary distribution partner. Reserve composition similar to EURC. Circulating supply lower (sub-100 million). MiCA-aligned through the Banking Circle's EU banking licence.

EURS — Stasis Euro, the original euro stablecoin from 2018. Pre-MiCA design; has been working through the framework transition. Reserves are euro-denominated and attested. Supply has stagnated as newer entrants captured the market.

EURT — Tether Euro, Tether Limited's euro product. Operates outside the MiCA perimeter for the same reasons USDT does (Tether has not pursued MiCA authorisation). Supply low, distribution narrow.

The EURC position is the strongest of the four on regulatory clarity. The supply is the largest in the MiCA-aligned segment though smaller than EURT in some windows. The combination of MiCA-aligned issuance with multi-chain availability is, as of mid-2026, EURC's only clean structural advantage.

What to watch on EURC in 2026 and beyond

The MiCA significant-EMT threshold. MiCA applies heightened supervision to "significant EMTs", with thresholds based on user count, transaction value, and market cap. EURC may approach these thresholds as supply grows, which would trigger additional disclosure and reserve requirements. The regulatory uplift is not negative for holders; it tightens the framework.

The non-EUR EMT activity caps. MiCA includes activity caps for EMTs denominated in non-EU currencies (i.e., USDC and other non-euro stablecoins operating in the EU). These caps, if triggered, would constrain the use of USDC in EU venues and could push more flow toward EURC. The caps are unlikely to bind in 2026 but are a tail event with meaningful directional impact.

The digital euro launch decision. The ECB's decision on whether to proceed with retail digital euro issuance, expected in late 2026 or 2027, will affect EURC positioning. A retail digital euro launch would change the demand picture for private EUR stablecoins; a deferred launch would leave the market space open.

If you want to act on this

The narrow action is to consider whether you have a use case for euros on-chain. For EU residents or for businesses doing cross-border EUR flows, EURC is a credible option with cleaner regulatory footing than any other euro stablecoin. For trading purposes, the dollar tokens (USDT, USDC) continue to be more useful. The desk holds a small EURC position for the on-chain FX use case and otherwise stays in dollar tokens. Our spot venue is Binance for both dollar and euro stablecoin trading; the Binance referral link uses code BN16188 and does not change your fees.

MiCA sources and Circle filings

  • Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council, "MiCA", 31 May 2023 (Official Journal of the EU).
  • ESMA technical standards and guidelines on MiCA implementation, 2024-2025 series.
  • ACPR France authorisation register for Circle Mint France SAS.
  • Circle monthly EURC reserve reports, 2022-06 through current (circle.com/en/transparency).
  • DeFiLlama and Token Terminal historical supply data for EURC, EURI, EURS, EURT.
  • ECB working papers on the digital euro project, 2023-2026.

For corrections or recent disclosures we may have missed, write to [email protected]; the corrections log is on the corrections page.