The Finnish company Membrane Finance has released a fully licensed stablecoin backed by the European single currency. The company is licensed by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that EUROe is «the first and only cryptocurrency regulated by the EU.» Earlier in June 2022, Circle Inc., based in the United States, also issued its own euro-backed stablecoin, but its EURO-Coin was initially stored in Silvergate Bank, an institution regulated by the United States. According to the message of Membrane Finance, each EUROe token is secured by at least one fiat euro in a European financial institution or bank. The company believes that this will allow for almost instant payments with approximately zero cost, in contrast to the high commission and low speed of traditional finance. Juha Viitala, CEO of the Finnish company, expressed hope that EUROe will encourage more Europeans to use decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Viitala stressed that stablecoins today are an integral part of the transition to a blockchain-based monetary infrastructure. Membrane Finance hopes that the launch of the euro-stablecoin, regulated by the financial authority of the European Union, will attract more ordinary people to DeFi, who previously could not do it or were worried about the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
