A euro stablecoin is an e-money token (EMT) under MiCA: it represents euros redeemable at par at any time, and in the EU only authorized credit institutions or e-money institutions may issue one. After years of absolute dollar dominance, the tokenized euro finally has regulated supply — and serious corporate use cases.
What an EMT actually is
MiCA classifies stablecoins referencing a single official currency as e-money tokens (Title IV): the issuer must be authorized, hold segregated liquid reserves and guarantee redemption at par, at any time, free of charge. That is the difference between a regulated stablecoin and a promise: the first has an identified issuer that answers for it; the second trades at a discount the day doubts appear. MiCA bars offering an EMT to the public or admitting it to trading in the EU without an authorized issuer (Art. 48(1)). ESMA set the end of Q1 2025 as the deadline for trading platforms to stop trading non-compliant ARTs and EMTs (statement of 17 January 2025). In its opinion of 8 October 2026, it considers that no CASP should provide services on them to EU clients (ESMA75-113276571-1742).
What exists today
The most visible regulated references are EURC (Circle, issued under an e-money institution authorization in France) and EURCV (SG-FORGE, Societe Generale group), alongside specialized issuers with European authorization. Volumes remain a fraction of dollar stablecoins — which means a market still being built, not a market that does not exist.
And the bank wave is coming: CaixaBank and BBVA are among the 37 European banks backing Qivalis, a Dutch company set up to issue a MiCA euro stablecoin. Santander and BBVA are also among 21 international institutions committed to creating another issuer, which will start with a US dollar stablecoin and has the euro as its priority among the next currencies — full analysis in bank stablecoins.
Stablecoin, tokenized deposit and digital euro are not the same thing
Three things get conflated daily. An EMT is issued by a private entity against reserves. A tokenized deposit is an ordinary bank deposit represented on a DLT: it stays on the bank’s balance sheet and under its regime. And the digital euro would be a CBDC — central bank money — whose regulation is still being negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council (proposal COM(2023) 369). The ECB closed the preparation phase in October 2025 and moved to the next one, but will only decide whether to issue it once the law is adopted. For a company, today, the operational options are the first two.
What companies use them for
The strongest use case sits in tokenized markets: delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement of tokenized securities, where the asset token and the money token change hands in the same transaction — no counterparty-risk windows. Beyond that: 24/7 operational treasury, cross-border B2B payments without correspondent banks, and programmable payments. It is the money leg that completes a regulated tokenization platform.
What MiCA requires to use them
Issuing one requires credit-institution or e-money authorization; offering services around them (custody, exchange, transfer) falls inside the CASP perimeter we explain in our guide to the CASP license in Spain. For a corporate user, minimum diligence is verifying that the issuer is authorized and that the token is redeemable at par by contract, not by custom.
Where it fits in your project
If you are designing an issuance or a platform and the question is how the money moves — subscription, coupons, settlement — that decision belongs to the structuring phase, not the end. It is part of what we solve in asset tokenization; book a call to walk it with your case.