The company behind stablecoin USD Coin is to launch Euro Coin, a euro-backed stablecoin, this month.
Available from June 30th, Circle says the regulated Euro Coin will follow the same full-reserve model as USDC, which is pegged to the US dollar.
It says it aims to usher in on-chain euro liquidity and unlock new opportunities for near-instant digital forex, bridging crypto-native and traditional financial services.
Businesses will be able to use EUROC tokens to accept and make euro payments globally that can settle in minutes, and access crypto capital markets for trading, borrowing and lending.
Euro Coin is fully-backed by euro-denominated reserves held conservatively in the custody of leading financial institutions within the US regulatory perimeter, beginning with Silvergate Bank.
“Circle has set industry-leading standards for moving financial value across the internet with USDC,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle.
“There is clear market demand for a digital currency denominated in euros, the world’s second-most traded currency after the US dollar.
“With USDC and Euro Coin, Circle is helping to unlock a new era of fast, inexpensive, secure and interoperable value exchange worldwide.”
USDC has around $54 billion in circulation.
Euro Coin will initially launch on the Ethereum blockchain starting on June 30, with support for additional blockchains expected later this year. As an Ethereum ERC-20 standard token, Euro Coin will work broadly with ERC-20 compatible wallets, protocols and other blockchain services.
A number of ecosystem leaders will support Euro Coin at launch, including Anchorage Digital, Binance.US, Bitstamp, Compound, Curve, CYBAVO, DFX, Fireblocks, FTX, Huobi Global, Ledger, MetaMask Institutional and Uniswap Protocol.
Euro Coin will be available to institutional customers via a free Circle Account starting June 30th, 2022. Developers can begin integrating with the Euro Coin smart contract immediately, ahead of the official launch.