- USDC became the EU’s first e-money token classified as significant under MiCA, triggering enhanced EBA supervision from 12 November 2026.
- The designation is not a licence or penalty, but reflects USDC’s growing systemic importance within the European market.
- The EBA will oversee areas including capital, reserves, liquidity, recovery and redemptions, while France’s ACPR retains other supervisory duties.
- A 37-bank European consortium behind Qivalis has secured an Electronic Money Institution licence ahead of its planned euro stablecoin launch.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has placed Circle’s USDC in the “significant e-money token” category under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). On Wednesday, 14 October, the EBA published a release saying that USDC is the first token to be classified as significant out of 45 EMTs in the European Union.
The classification is not a licence, approval or punishment. USDC was already being issued in the EU under the European regulatory framework. It has now been classified as sufficiently important to warrant enhanced EBA supervision.
From 12 November 2026, USDC will be subject to the dual supervision foreseen by MiCA for significant EMTs.
European Banking Authority From that date, the EBA will take over several areas currently supervised by the French Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), including capital requirements, reserve assets, liquidity and recovery and redemption planning.
Supervision of governance, significant shareholdings, fit-and-proper checks, outsourcing and conflicts of interest will remain with the ACPR. Both regulators will work closely together to “ensure a smooth transition and effective supervisory cooperation”, according to the EBA.
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The EBA also noted that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services in June, as USDC is issued on both sides of the Atlantic.
The designation essentially means EU regulators now consider USDC large and important enough to warrant stricter oversight as its use grows.
European Banks Prepare Their Own Stablecoin
On the same day, Qivalis received an Electronic Money Institution licence from De Nederlandsche Bank. Qivalis is a European stablecoin project backed by 37 banks in 15 countries, among them several heavy hitters such as Bank of Ireland, ING, Deka, BNP Paribas, Danske Bank and DZ Bank.
While the authorisation makes it eligible to issue a euro-denominated electronic money token, its stablecoin has not launched yet. Issuance is planned over the next few months, “subject to the completion of the regulatory requirements”, Qivalis said in a post on X.
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It sees a euro stablecoin as an essential tool to provide deep euro liquidity. Currently, trading with euros on-chain at scale can involve a behind-the-scenes swap into a dollar stablecoin before a trade gets executed. That’s the problem Qivalis is trying to fix.
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