Originally published in Finnish in September 2026. Market figures are as of September 2026.
In August we wrote about dollar stablecoins: T-bills buy America’s debt, CLARITY separates payments from yield, and MiCA builds a fortress with a 30 per cent bank floor (read the article). In September 2026 the same picture is sharper – and harsher for the euro.
The whole stablecoin market is about $300 billion. USDT about $183 billion, USDC about $74 billion. Euro stablecoins combined are about €700–780 million. The largest euro token, EURC, carries the bulk of that, about €400 million. A large French bank’s euro token comes far behind. The rest are banks’ EMT tickets whose supply is measured in tens of millions.
Growth sounds great in percentages. Euro tokens may have doubled in a year. Relative to the dollar they are still about 0.2–0.3 per cent. MiCA didn’t create euro clearing. It created a licensed shelf with very little on it.
This isn’t an “early stage”. It is a revelation. The euro stablecoin limps for five reasons that a white paper won’t fix.
1. The digital euro is a shadow that isn’t money yet
The ECB is preparing. The legislation is in trilogue. The assumption: the regulation finalised by the end of 2026, a pilot in the second half of 2027, possible issuance in 2029. The beta is not legal tender. The holding limit, privacy and bank deposit flight are still politics, not technology.
The shadow is enough. An institutional treasury won’t build euro-stablecoin cash flows if, three years from now, a state token with mandatory acceptance and a holding cap may arrive in the same space. A merchant won’t switch checkouts if the next “standard” comes from the central bank. An issuer won’t scale its reserve if the legislator can define a competing public money, the digital euro, tomorrow.
The dollar stablecoin isn’t waiting for a Fed CBDC. GENIUS made the private dollar the rule. Europe does the opposite: the private EMT may exist until the public one replaces it in the name of “inclusiveness”. Waiting is rational. That is why supply stays small even as licences are issued.
The digital euro doesn’t kill the euro stablecoin today. It kills the reason to hold it overnight in the treasury — and the emergence of a euro DeFi market.
2. DeFi is the dollar, and it won’t change address because of a seminar
Lending, collateral, perps, RWA rails and liquidity pools are priced in dollars. In the large lending protocols, the big pools are USDC and USDT. Institutional DeFi deposits of EURC are in the tens of millions without much circulation. Billions move in the dollar pools.
Yield follows liquidity. Liquidity follows the pair that has a counterparty. The counterparty is the dollar, because it is already there. A EUR pool is narrow, slippage is high, collateral factors are worse. A growth entrepreneur won’t move treasury into a worse pool to prove they are European.
MiCA’s interest ban for EMT issuers and service providers makes this even uglier. The dollar goes into DeFi and separate lending products. The euro token stays a “means of payment” that may not pay interest. Then everyone wonders why nobody holds it.
DeFi is not a neutral pipe. It has already chosen its reserve currency. The network effect doesn’t ask Brussels for permission.
3. The euro is not the reserve currency – a token won’t make it one
Globally, central bank reserves, currency swaps and crisis liquidity rely on the dollar. The euro is a clear second. A token redeemed into euros on an EU bank account inherits the same hierarchy. The euro lacks a single bond market; it is a fragmented national puzzle with different premiums.
When a Nigerian, an Argentinian or a Vietnamese person chooses protection, they choose the dollar. The IMF has already said it out loud: the dollar stablecoin is digitised dollarisation. A local “own stablecoin” can be an on-ramp to it, not a substitute. The IMF fears flight from emerging markets’ weak currencies into USD stablecoins, and with reason — but it is also the individual’s right to protect their wealth.
A euro stablecoin would require the holder to want euro exposure specifically. Inside the euro area you get that with a bank account, SEPA and perhaps soon the digital euro. Outside the euro area, the euro is a risk, not a hedge. That is why demand doesn’t arise from a “geopolitical alternative”. It would arise if the euro were better money. It isn’t — not on inflation, not on depth, not on acceptance.
MiCA’s backing requirement doesn’t change this. 30 per cent in EU credit institution accounts, 70 per cent in HQLA in the same currency, 2–3 per cent own funds, par redemption with no fee. It is a tidy balance sheet. It isn’t a reason to hold euros if the world prices trade transactions in dollars.
4. World trade and commodities are the dollar
Oil, gas, metals, grain, freight contracts, marine insurance: the invoice comes in dollars. A supplier in Vietnam, a buyer in Germany, settlement in USDC — that was the B2B picture of our previous article. Swap USDC for EURC and ask who carries the currency risk.
A European exporter can invoice in euros. The global commodity chain can’t. A token that doesn’t fit that chain stays a domestic checkout experiment. E-commerce USDC checkouts, crypto payment processors, USDT on TRC-20 and OTC dollars handle the border. The EUR EMT handles the press release.
There is no mystery here. The money that buys a barrel is the money that gets tokenised. The T-bill is the dollar’s reserve. The German Bund is not the world’s working capital.
5. A banks’ marketing project without a use case
Look at the issuer list: one dollar-native stablecoin issuer, a handful of banks and bank subsidiaries, a few EMIs. Supplies are small. Volume is small. DeFi use is small. Online checkouts aren’t queuing for EURC.
What’s left? A licence. A white paper. “We are MiCA-compliant.” Proof of being a forerunner for the board, the supervisor and the annual report. The token is evidence that the bank “understands digitalisation”. The customer isn’t the user. The customer is a slide.
This is the logical outcome of the fortress. Mandatory EMI status, a 30 per cent bank floor, an interest ban, redemption through an EU door. The product is built so that it can’t compete with deposits. Then “success” is measured by the number of issuers. 23 licences and €700 million is not a market. It is a department.
Fintech apps and stablecoin infrastructure providers can bolt a EUR token onto an app. That doesn’t change the commodity invoice or the big DeFi lending pool. It changes the press release — and makes a nice social media post.
Backing is not demand
Our previous article opened up MiCA: the reserve and own funds are two different stacks. The EMT’s 30/70 split ties the token to an EU bank. A significant token raises the buffer to 3 per cent. Redemption makes the EU the door for a run. The interest ban outsources yield to DeFi — which is the dollar.
All this is consistent if the goal is to protect the deposit monopoly. It is contradictory if the goal is euro clearing. GENIUS buys T-bills, because a redeemable dollar needs the world’s most liquid paper. MiCA buys EU bank deposits, because the fortress needs a domestic counterparty.
That is why the euro stablecoin “limps”. Not because the technology is missing. It limps because the use case is missing, and the shadow (the digital euro), the network (USD DeFi), reserve status and commodity trade all point in the same direction.
What could change the picture
To be fair to the other side: the 30/70 reserve split, segregation and fee-free par redemption do protect token holders, and a licensed, transparent euro token is a sound tool for euro-area B2B payments where both parties want euro exposure. The picture could shift if the Commission’s 2026 MiCA review opens the interest ban, if the final digital euro design leaves room for private euro tokens, or if euro-denominated liquidity in DeFi deepens. None of these is in place today.
A growth entrepreneur won’t wait for a seminar to fix the network effect. They keep their treasury in the money used to pay, borrow and settle. Today that is the dollar. Tomorrow it is still the dollar — until someone serves the customer better, and not before.
As Ludwig von Mises put it:
Interventionism is not a golden mean between capitalism and socialism. … Control is indivisible. Either the consumers’ demand as manifested on the market decides … or the government takes care of these matters. … They preclude each other.
Ludwig von Mises
The euro stablecoin is trying to be both: a market token and proof of the fortress. The market has already voted. A licence is not demand.
What this means for your company
Whether your company holds USDC, EURC or both, the Finnish tax treatment depends on the token’s reference currency and reserve. Read Stablecoin accounting and tax in Finland and DeFi tax and crypto accounting, or see our services in English.
Talk to us
Select Financial Services Oy, Fredrikinkatu 61, 00100 Helsinki. Tell us what you hold, where it sits and how your company uses it — we will tell you how it should be booked and taxed in Finland.