Euro stablecoin launched in Finland, claims to be first approved in the EU

Finnish firm Membrane Finance has launched a fully reserved, euro-backed stablecoin, according to a company blog post on Feb. 2. The company is licensed by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that the new “EUROe” coin is “the first and only EU-regulated stablecoin.”

Membrane Finance is pleased to announce the launch of EUROe on Ethereum!

read more in https://t.co/nV8dYKkBmKand read the thread below to see how you can get started with $EUROe from today!

— EUROe (@EUROemoney) February 2, 2023

US-based Circle Inc. launched its own euro-backed stablecoin in June, but his Euro Coin (EUROC) was initially held in custody by Silvergate Bank, a US regulated entity.

Each EUROe token is backed by "at least one euro fiat [...] In a financial institution or European bank, protected by Membrane Finance”, according to the company position. The company believes it will enable "near-instant payments" at close to zero cost, in contrast to the high cost and slow speeds of traditional finance.

Membrane Finance CEO Juha Viitala expressed hope that the regulated EUROe currency would encourage more Europeans to grow wealth through the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, stating:

“Stablecoins are an essential part of the transition to a blockchain-based monetary infrastructure, and Europeans deserve to have a fully-reserved euro stablecoin from the EU and regulated by an EU-based financial authority. Hopefully EUROe will attract more regulars to DeFi, who previously couldn't or were concerned about the volatility of cryptocurrencies."

Related: The UK's native stablecoin integrates into 18,000 ATMs across the country

EUROe will initially be available on Ethereum, with support for additional blockchain networks planned for the future.

“Stablecoins”, or fiat currency-backed crypto tokens, have had a long and illustrious history in the crypto world. The first US dollar stablecoin, Tether (USDT), was initially released for the Bitcoin Omni Layer, with an Ethereum version arriving in 2018. It is now the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to to CoinMarketCap.

On January 19, Circle and the team behind decentralized exchange Uniswap published a report claiming that blockchain-based currency exchange can reduce remittance costs by up to 80%.