Finland Launches Euro Stablecoin
Membrane Finance, a Finnish company, has introduced a stablecoin that is completely supported by the euro, as stated in the company's blog post in February. It holds a license from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that its new "EUROe" coin is the only stablecoin that is regulated by the European Union.
United States-based Circle Inc. launched its own stablecoin backed by the euro in June. Its Euro Coin (EUROC) was initially under the custody of Silvergate Bank, a financial institution regulated in the US. Membrane Finance says that each EUROe token is backed by at least one euro stored in a European financial institution or bank, separate from the company.
The firm believes that this will allow for near-instant and low-cost payments, unlike traditional finance which is slow and expensive. The CEO of Membrane Finance, Juha Viitala, is hopeful that the regulated EUROe coin will encourage more people in Europe to grow their wealth through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Initially, the EUROe will only be accessible on the Ethereum network, with plans to support additional blockchain networks in the future.
Stablecoins or digital tokens backed by fiat currency have been a part of the cryptocurrency world for a long time. The first stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, Tether (USDT), was released on the Bitcoin Omni Layer, followed by an Ethereum version in 2018. Tether is now the third-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.
Circle and the team behind the Uniswap decentralized exchange released a report that stated that foreign exchange using blockchain technology could reduce remittance costs by up to 80%.
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