EURC (EURC) Reseña

What is the EURC stablecoin?

EURC is Circle's euro stablecoin. Each token is worth one euro, backed by euro cash in bank accounts and issued under the EU's MiCA rules by Circle's French subsidiary. On 16 October 2026 Circle counted 447.2 million EURC in circulation, about $503 million at the European Central Bank's reference rate. That made it the largest euro stablecoin, with 59.8% of the euro-pegged supply DefiLlama tracks.

For a reader in the US or UK, EURC is mainly a way to hold or move euros on a blockchain without opening a euro bank account. It does that well. There are three catches. Your gains and losses are measured in dollars or pounds, so every EUR/USD move hits you directly. MiCA gives every holder the right to redeem at par, but Circle's process for individuals pays out only to an EEA bank account. And its US future depends on how the GENIUS Act treats foreign issuers from 2028.

Who issues EURC?

Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, a Paris-based e-money institution supervised by France's ACPR, is the only issuer and redeemer of EURC. It has issued EURC as a MiCA-authorised e-money token since 1 July 2024, and it appears on ESMA's interim MiCA register with that authorisation date.

Circle's US company launched the coin, then called Euro Coin or EUROC, on 30 June 2022 and stopped issuing it when the French entity took over. Today the US company only resells EURC to Circle Mint customers, according to the EURC terms updated on 15 October 2026.

The parent is Circle Internet Group, the NYSE-listed company behind USDC, and EURC runs on the same smart-contract code as USDC on Ethereum, with "EUR" set as its currency.

What backs EURC?

Only euro cash held in segregated accounts at regulated financial institutions. Circle's August 2026 reserve report, examined by Deloitte & Touche LLP and signed on 29 September 2026, lists a single reserve line, "cash held at regulated financial institutions", with no bonds, money funds or repo. The monthly figures move with demand but the buffer stays fixed:

Deloitte examines the reports under US attestation standards set by the AICPA, and each report looks at two dates in the month, as for USDC. Circle does not name the banks.

Its transparency page showed 98.8% of the reserve, €444.2 million on 15 October 2026, in deposits at systemically important institutions and the rest in other bank deposits. Where that cash sits is less clear. Circle's EURC page says in its main text that reserves are held in the EEA, while a footnote on the same page says cash is held at US institutions. We could not settle which is current. This page names no country.

All-cash reserves are simple. They comfortably exceed MiCA's rule that a non-significant e-money token keep at least 30% of funds in bank deposits. They also carry the risk that hit USDC in March 2023: a bank failure can trap part of the reserve. EURC has had that kind of exposure before.

In early March 2023 part of its reserves sat at Silvergate Bank, whose parent announced the bank's wind-down on 8 March 2023, alongside BNY Mellon, according to the reserve report for 6 March that year. By 31 March 2023 all of its reserves were at BNY Mellon.

Is EURC regulated?

In the EU, yes. It is an authorised e-money token under MiCA, which gives every holder the right to redeem at par at any time, without a fee, and bans the issuer from paying interest, under articles 49 and 50.

EURC is not a "significant" token. When the European Banking Authority made its first significance decision on 14 October 2026, it named USDC only. At €447 million, EURC is far below MiCA's €5 billion size test, one of seven significance criteria of which a token must meet at least three, and the ACPR remains its supervisor.

In the US the picture is open. The GENIUS Act counts a coin redeemable in a foreign national currency as a payment stablecoin, and treats an issuer based abroad as a foreign issuer. From 18 July 2028, US platforms may offer such a coin only if the Treasury finds the issuer's home regime comparable and the issuer registers with the OCC, among other conditions.

No comparability finding existed on 16 October 2026. Nor did we find a public Circle statement on EURC's route. In the UK, Circle holds an FCA e-money licence, but the FCA's stablecoin rules from October 2027 cover coins issued from the UK, which EURC is not.

Can you redeem EURC for euros?

Yes, directly from Circle, if you can receive euros into an EEA bank account. Circle France's MiCA redemption policy, updated on 15 September 2026, lets any individual holder register, pass identity checks, give an EEA IBAN that accepts SEPA transfers and send EURC to a unique deposit address.

Circle says the process "should not take more than 5 business days". MiCA bars a redemption fee, though your bank's fees are yours. Businesses and other holders who are not individuals redeem through a Circle Mint account instead, which Circle says it offers at no additional cost.

US and UK holders without an EEA account usually sell on an exchange instead. On 16 October 2026 Kraken's public data showed EURC/USD, EURC/EUR and EURC/USDC markets online, and Coinbase listed an EURC-USDC market. Robinhood, PayPal and Binance.US did not offer EURC. Kraken does not serve New York residents and does not let Canadian clients hold EURC.

Has EURC ever lost its peg?

Not in the past year, but once briefly in 2023. CoinGecko's daily euro prices for EURC ranged from €0.9876 to €1.0087 between October 2025 and October 2026, and the extremes lined up with fast EUR/USD moves rather than a break in the peg.

On 11 March 2023, the weekend Silicon Valley Bank failed and USDC broke its peg, CoinMarketCap's euro data show EUROC trading as low as €0.892 before closing the day at €0.998. Only about 31.7 million EUROC existed then, and its reserves were not at SVB, so the dip looks like contagion in a thin market rather than a reserve problem. It still counts as a depeg. A euro coin can wobble when its dollar sibling does.

Can Circle freeze EURC?

Yes. EURC runs on the same contract code as USDC, which includes a blacklist function, and its MiCA white paper describes a "blocklisting feature" that can stop an address from sending or receiving.

Circle's access-denial policy sets out the grounds. Circle blocks addresses to protect network security, to comply with a legal order from a US or French authority or court or another government authority with jurisdiction over Circle, or in certain urgent law-enforcement and sanctions cases. Circle's reports show zero EURC in blocked addresses at every 2026 report date from April to August.

Which blockchains is EURC on?

Circle issues EURC natively on nine blockchains, up from six in May 2026, according to its contract address list. Ethereum holds most of it.

Cronos, Arc and Plasma joined Circle's approved EURC chains between June and August 2026; Arc, Circle's own blockchain, opened its public mainnet on 16 September 2026. Since 2 September 2026 Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol moves native EURC between Ethereum and Base, per its announcement, while the versions on Polygon, Optimism or Gnosis are bridged tokens that Circle does not issue.

How does EURC compare with other euro stablecoins?

EURC is the biggest, while Société Générale's EURCV is growing faster. Sizes from DefiLlama and the ESMA register on 16 October 2026:

EURCV more than doubled between May and October 2026, from 79.2 million to 167.3 million, which is why EURC's share slipped from 64.1% to 59.8% even as its own supply grew about 18%. More competition is coming. Revolut began rolling out a euro coin issued by Stripe-owned Bridge in August 2026. On 14 October 2026 the Dutch central bank authorised Qivalis, a euro stablecoin venture backed by 37 European banks, as an e-money institution, according to Qivalis. Qivalis had not issued a token yet.

Does EURC pay interest?

No, and under MiCA it cannot. The EURC terms state that it "does not itself generate any interest or return for holders", and MiCA bars both the issuer and crypto service providers from paying interest on e-money tokens. Some DeFi lending markets paid between about 1.6% and 4.4% on EURC deposits on 16 October 2026, per DefiLlama's yield data, but that comes with the lending protocol's own smart-contract and liquidity risk.

How is EURC taxed in the US?

The IRS treats stablecoins as property. Selling or swapping EURC is therefore a taxable disposal, per its digital assets page. Because your gains are measured in dollars, a move in EUR/USD between buying and selling EURC creates a gain or loss even though the coin tracked the euro perfectly.

The Form 1099-DA instructions define a qualifying stablecoin as one designed to track a single currency issued by a government or central bank, among other tests. A euro coin can therefore qualify for the brokers' optional $10,000 de minimis method. Our US crypto tax guide covers the general rules.

Who should use EURC?

EURC suits people and businesses who need euros on-chain: paying EU suppliers, holding euro value in DeFi, or moving between USDC and euros without a bank in between. For EEA residents it is the most straightforward option, with direct redemption and full MiCA coverage.

It suits US and UK savers less. You take on currency risk, you probably cannot redeem directly, and you earn nothing. If you simply want a dollar token, USDC comes from the same company without the FX exposure. Our stablecoin hub compares the euro coins side by side, and the guide to what a stablecoin is covers the basics.

Sources

1. Circle / Deloitte & Touche LLP, Reserve report, August 2026, signed 2026-09-29, and the April, June and July 2026 reports. Accessed 2026-10-16.
2. Circle, stablecoin supply API and product page, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
3. Circle, transparency page. Accessed 2026-10-16.
4. Circle, terms of use, updated 2026-10-15, and MiCA redemption policy, updated 2026-09-15. Accessed 2026-10-16.
5. DefiLlama, supply data and euro-pegged stablecoin data, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
6. European Central Bank, EUR/USD reference rate, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
7. ESMA, interim MiCA register and MiCA interactive rulebook. Accessed 2026-10-16.
8. European Banking Authority, first significant e-money token decision, 2026-10-14. Accessed 2026-10-16.
9. US Government Publishing Office, GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27. Accessed 2026-10-16.
10. Circle, contract addresses and CCTP announcement, 2026-09-02. Accessed 2026-10-16.
11. Kraken, asset pairs and licensing page; Coinbase, market list; Robinhood, coin availability. Accessed 2026-10-16.
12. Circle, MiCA white paper (amended 2025-12-24), stablecoin access denial policy and March 2023 reserve report. Accessed 2026-10-16.
13. CoinGecko, market data; CoinMarketCap, price history; DefiLlama, yield pools. Accessed 2026-10-16.
14. Qivalis, press releases, 2026-10-14; Decrypt, Revolut launches euro stablecoin, 2026-08-26; Silvergate Capital, Form 8-K on wind-down, 2023-03-08. Accessed 2026-10-16.
15. IRS, digital assets and Form 1099-DA instructions. Accessed 2026-10-16.
16. ESMA, MiCA interactive rulebook, Article 49, Article 43 and Article 56. Accessed 2026-10-17.
17. DefiLlama, supply data for EURCV, EURI, EURe, EUROP, REUR, StablR EURR, EURQ and EURS; ESMA, interim register of e-money token issuers, 2026-10-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.
18. PayPal, supported cryptocurrencies; Binance.US, trading symbols. Accessed 2026-10-16.
19. Circle, licences page, updated 2026-09-08; Financial Conduct Authority, cryptoasset regime policy statements, 2026-06-30. Accessed 2026-10-16.
20. Federal Reserve, In the shadow of bank run: lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank failure and its impact on stablecoins, 2025-12-17. Accessed 2026-10-16.
21. The Block, Circle launches Arc mainnet, 2026-09-16. Accessed 2026-10-16.