Stablecoins in Europe: what you can buy under MiCA

The two stablecoins in our comparison

USDC and EURC are both issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, an electronic money institution authorised in France and supervised by the ACPR. ESMA's register has listed Circle as the issuer of both tokens since 1 July 2024.

On 16 October 2026 our comparison found a euro market for USDC on seven of the eight licensed platforms: Bitvavo, Kraken, Coinbase, Bitpanda, OKX, Bybit EU and Bitstamp. EURC had one on four of them: Bitvavo, Kraken, Bitpanda and Bybit EU. How each platform charges is set out in our fee guides, for example for Kraken, Bitpanda and Bybit EU.

Why the issuer's licence matters

MiCA sorts stablecoins into two groups. An e-money token tracks the value of a single official currency, as USDC and EURC do. An asset-referenced token tracks something else or a combination, such as a basket of currencies or a commodity. Only a bank or an electronic money institution may offer an e-money token to the public in the EU or seek its admission to trading (Article 48).

The register shows how unevenly the two groups have developed. In the version ESMA last updated on 7 October 2026, we counted 25 authorised e-money token issuers based in 14 countries of the European Economic Area. The file for asset-referenced token issuers contained no entries at all.

Tokens whose issuer has no EU authorisation were taken off licensed trading platforms. In January 2025 ESMA told platforms to stop making them available for trading, with a sell-only window that ran until the end of March 2025. At first, holding or transferring them was still allowed, but in an opinion of 8 October 2026 ESMA said licensed platforms should stop all services for such tokens and clear what clients still hold within three months. That is why Tether (USDT) is not in our comparison, even though CoinGecko ranked it as the largest stablecoin on 16 October 2026, with a market value of around $184 billion.

The platform needs its own authorisation as well. Our overview of MiCA-licensed exchanges lists the licence behind each platform we compare. On a licensed platform, client crypto has to be kept apart from the platform's own assets (Article 75).

A dollar coin in a euro account

If you pay in euros, USDC is two things at once: a stablecoin and a position in US dollars. Its value in your account rises and falls with the euro to dollar exchange rate. Using the ECB's reference rates, one dollar was worth about €0.86 on 15 October 2025 and about €0.89 on 15 October 2026, and a USDC holding measured in euros moved in step.

EURC removes that currency effect, because it aims to stay at €1. It is a much smaller market, though. According to CoinGecko on 16 October 2026, all stablecoins together were worth about $299 billion, while euro stablecoins added up to roughly $822 million, less than 0.3 per cent of the total. EURC accounted for about $502 million of that, making it the largest euro stablecoin.

Getting your money back from the issuer

Holding an e-money token gives you a claim on its issuer. Article 49 of MiCA requires the issuer to redeem it at any time and at par value when you ask, and redemption may not be subject to a fee.

Circle's redemption policy explains how that works for private individuals in practice:

1. Eligibility first. You apply to Circle directly, and you need an IBAN from a bank account in the European Economic Area.
2. Checks. Circle verifies your identity and looks at where the tokens you deposit came from.
3. Payment. EURC is paid out in euros by SEPA. USDC is paid out in US dollars, so your account must be able to receive a dollar payment.
4. Timing. Circle says the process should take no more than five business days, unless something in the checks does not add up.

MiCA rules out a redemption fee, but your own bank may still charge, for example to receive dollars or convert them into euros. Selling on a platform is the alternative: you then get that platform's price at that moment, minus its fees, rather than the fixed par value.

Interest is not on offer. Article 50 bars issuers and crypto platforms from paying interest on e-money tokens, and treats any reward linked to how long you hold the token as interest.

What can still go wrong

• A temporary break from the peg. On 11 March 2023, USDC fell to a low of 88 cents, according to the EU's three financial supervisors, as holders rushed to sell on concerns that Circle kept part of its cash reserves at Silicon Valley Bank.
• Reliance on one company. Your claim is on Circle, so it depends on the reserves and on the issuer itself.
• No deposit protection. An e-money token is not covered by deposit guarantee schemes or investor compensation schemes, and the white paper must say so (Article 51).
• Self-custody. Move stablecoins to a wallet you control and the platform's duty to keep them separate no longer applies. Losing the recovery phrase means losing the tokens.

Tax and reporting

From 2026, DAC8 requires crypto platforms to report their customers' transactions, and the data reaches the tax authority of the country where each customer lives. The directive names stablecoins, including e-money tokens, among the crypto-assets it covers. How they are taxed is a national matter. Our DAC8 guide explains what is reported.

To see what USDC costs on each licensed platform for your amount, open the comparison for USDC; EURC can be picked from the coin list.