Circle Becomes the First Global Stablecoin Issuer to Comply With Europe\'s MiCA Laws

Stablecoin issuer Circle has been granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license by France's Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR)

Stablecoin issuer Circle has become the first major company to be fully compliant with Europe’s MiCA laws after being granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license by France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), part of the Banque de France.

The move comes as MiCA laws relating to stablecoins came into force on Monday. Several smaller stablecoins issuers already have licenses.

Circle now plans to issue both the EURC and USDC via Circle Mint France, a fully owned subsidiary of Circle.

“Since our founding, Circle has sought to build durable, compliant, and well-regulated infrastructure for stablecoins, and our adherence to MiCA, which represents one of the most comprehensive crypto regulatory regimes in the world, is a huge milestone in bringing digital currency into mainstream scale and acceptance,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO at Circle.

“By working closely with French and EU regulators, we are now able to offer both USDC and EURC as fully-compliant dollar and euro stablecoins to the European market.”

Does this mean that USDC in Europe is no longer fungible with the coin elsewhere?

Circle’s Patrick Hansen told TechCrunch that they are fungible. “EURC will be fully issued by Circle France, with all reserves held by Circle France in compliance with MiCA standards,” he said. In contrast, USDC will simply be minted by Circle France.

That’s a critical point because the EU requires large issuers to hold 60% of their reserves in bank accounts, which will pay far less interest than Treasuries. This is a topic that Hansen previously pushed back on.

Additionally, MiCA imposes limits on the transaction volumes for non-EU currency stablecoins to protect monetary sovereignty. A dollar stablecoin can’t average more than €200 million in daily volume or more than a million transactions. However, most crypto and general investment transactions are not included in the limit, which instead targets everyday payments to merchants. We’ll be publishing a detailed article on that topic tomorrow.

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