Europe probably doesn't need another euro stablecoin. 🧡
And strangely enough, Revolut launching one might help prove the point.
With Revolut's EURR entering the market, there are now 20+ MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins, issued by EMIs, banks and other regulated players.
That is good news.
Competition is healthy.
More serious institutions entering the market validates the technology.
And the euro absolutely needs a stronger presence onchain.
But let's ask the uncomfortable question: How many euro stablecoins do we actually need?
Because issuance is no longer the bottleneck.
Europe already has plenty of compliant euro-denominated tokens.
What it doesn't yet have at meaningful scale is liquidity, distribution, integrations, on/off ramps, merchant acceptance and cross-border usage.
In other words... Utility.
And stablecoins are ultimately a network business.
A stablecoin becomes useful because wallets support it. Exchanges list it. Businesses integrate it. Payment providers accept it. Developers build around it.
People hold it because other people accept it.
And every additional integration makes the next integration more valuable.
That's the flywheel.
The dollar already has an enormous one. The euro doesn't. Yet.
And that's why the next phase of Europe's stablecoin story will have to be about making the existing ones actually useful. Especially beyond Europe.
Because perhaps the biggest opportunity for euro stablecoins isn't someone in Luxembourg sending digital euros to someone in France. Traditional banking already does that reasonably well.
The more interesting question is whether someone in Africa, Latin America or Asia will eventually choose to hold, receive and settle in digital euros.
That's a completely different ambition.
S&P Global has projected that euro stablecoin supply could potentially reach €1.1 trillion by 2030.
Getting anywhere close will happen if the euro develops real onchain network effects.
And that raises another important issue.
MiCA can regulate the European market. But stablecoins are inherently global.
If Europe wants euro stablecoins to compete internationally, regulatory alignment and interoperability with other major stablecoin frameworks will matter enormously. Because you cannot build a global monetary network inside a regulatory island.
There's also a rather ironic footnote to Revolut's launch.
The ticker EURR is already being used by StablR, whose EURR and USDR minting and redemptions have reportedly remained suspended following a cybersecurity incident and activation of its MiCA recovery plan.
So we may soon have two EURRs... inside a market with 20+ euro stablecoins competing for attention.
Europe has solved the problem of creating euro stablecoins.
Now comes the much harder part: Creating a euro stablecoin people actually want to use.
Because regulation can create the playing field. It cannot create the network effect. 🧡
Credit to: https://x.com/paddi_hansen/status/2092967971421392919
