Europe Ends the
Onchain Dollar Detour

European institutions hold euro-denominated assets, serve euro-denominated customers, and operate in euro-denominated markets. When institutions move euros onchain or use stablecoins for settlement, they are often forced to rely on dollar-denominated infrastructure.

A treasury manager flying from Frankfurt to Dubai doesn’t make a stopover in New York. Neither should the euros they manage. Yet onchain, euro-denominated value is often routed through USD stablecoins for liquidity or counterparties before final settlement, introducing cost, friction, and reconciliation noise.

How much can that routing cost?

During periods of heightened FX volatility in December 2025, EUR/USD saw daily high-low moves of approximately 0.5–0.7%. In such conditions, euro-denominated flows routed through USD stablecoins can experience incremental execution costs in double-digit basis points, driven by timing effects and conversion spreads rather than underlying FX exposure. That’s a high price for a sightseeing detour that treasury operations never wanted in the first place.

Europe today is home to one of the world’s largest and most systemically significant financial markets, but much of its digital settlement activity still runs on dollar-centric rails. This historical default carries a measurable price tag that euro businesses no longer need to pay.

Independent analyst Juuso Roinevirta named EURØP among the top three projected winners in 2026 in his annual State of Euro Stablecoins report.

Roinevirta’s analysis cites two factors. First, EURØP has become “by far the most used euro stablecoin on XRPL,” indicating traction on payments-focused infrastructure. Second, Schuman Financial’s API-first approach enables businesses to integrate euro-denominated settlement without building their own rails.

The timing matters. The euro represents about one-fifth of global FX reserves, yet USD-pegged stablecoins still represent more than 99% of the global stablecoin market. As activity moves onchain, a measurable inefficiency emerges between euro-denominated demand and dollar-denominated settlement. Roinevirta’s analysis identifies that imbalance and evaluates EURØP within it.

“Tokenization and stablecoins might be the name of the game this year,” declared François Villeroy de Galhau, Banque de France Governor, opening Davos 2026’s tokenization panel. This marked a shift from 2025, when stablecoins appeared mainly within broader discussions on crypto regulation and digital assets. In 2026, they moved to dedicated, high-level sessions focused on execution, payments, and infrastructure.

Four signals emerged from Davos 2026:

Regulatory clarity became competitive advantage. Dozens of MiCA licenses have been issued across the EU. Non-compliant stablecoins were delisted from regulated European platforms throughout 2024 and early 2025. Licensed issuers including Schuman Financial are filling that vacuum.

Retail infrastructure rollout began. Ingenico and WalletConnect Pay announced stablecoin payment enablement across an installed base of approximately 40 million Android terminals, with rollout through acquirers and payment service providers beginning in early 2026. As retail stablecoin payments scale, institutional settlement infrastructure becomes critical. That infrastructure must be MiCA-compliant and euro-native.

The euro stablecoin gap is closing. Although total market capitalization remains under €700 million, infrastructure already deployed by licensed issuers like Schuman Financial will determine who captures that growth.

European institutions reduce dollar dependency. Political and economic uncertainty throughout 2025 increased FX volatility and execution costs for euro-native flows routed through dollar rails. CFOs are now pricing dollar dependency as an operational risk rather than an infrastructure assumption. When maintaining dual-currency exposure becomes measurably more expensive than migrating to euro-native settlement, fiduciary considerations drive the decision.

Cross-border settlement in seconds. Euro-denominated value settles directly onchain without detouring through USD infrastructure. No correspondent banks. No settlement windows. Geography stops mattering for settlement speed.

FX swaps in under 15 minutes. USD stablecoins convert to EUR fiat with zero pre-funding requirements. Settlement runs 24/7 with transparent pricing. Treasury teams execute FX at the moment they need it, not when the bank is open.

API-first infrastructure. Businesses integrate EURØP stablecoin capabilities without building their own payments infrastructure, allowing them to focus on their own core business.

Direct-to-Wallet. Instant SEPA payments trigger automatic EURØP minting. Each vIBAN is unique to the client. Euro payments arrive instantly and settle onchain within seconds. The infrastructure combines traditional banking rails with stablecoin speed.

The future of European finance is onchain, denominated in euros, and settling in seconds.