Schuman Financial CEO at Ripple Swell:
Why Private Euro Stablecoins Will Define Europe’s Financial Future

Martin Bruncko sat down with CoinDesk Live at Ripple Swell in New York on November 4 to discuss the state of European digital finance. His message was direct: Europe has the infrastructure, the market, and the regulatory clarity to lead the next wave of on-chain finance.

Key takeaways from Bruncko’s interview with CoinDesk Live:

• MiCA gave Europe a regulatory head start—but the US Genius Act has closed the gap
• The euro stablecoin market could potentially reach €200-300 billion as tokenized finance scales to match traditional euro-denominated services
• The digital euro won’t close the stablecoin gap—privately-issued euro stablecoins will drive adoption, not government infrastructure

The stakes are high. As traditional financial services move on-chain, the currency layer creates both opportunity and risk for the euro: a chance to build on euro-denominated rails or watch USD stablecoins capture euro-denominated markets. Stablecoins aren’t just crypto trading tools anymore—they’re becoming the settlement rails for cross-border payments, FX markets, and tokenized assets. And right now, those rails are almost entirely dollar-denominated.

Yet euro-denominated financial services represent roughly a third of global financial services volume. Europe has half a billion people who transact and think in euros, not dollars. Yet euro stablecoins remain a tiny fraction of the market. If that doesn’t change, Europe risks becoming dependent on American infrastructure for its own economy.

“Financial services are now moving on-chain,” Bruncko told CoinDesk Live. “If you really want to catalyze this revolution—you need to have the fundamental currency in a tokenized version, which is a stablecoin.”

When the EU introduced Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in 2023, it gave Europe a real advantage. MiCA created the world’s first comprehensive framework for stablecoins, aligning their treatment with existing e-money rules. For the first time, institutions had clarity on how to issue, hold, and transact with digital currencies in Europe.

Meanwhile, the US had no federal framework. Regulatory uncertainty kept major players on the sidelines.

But that gap is closing. With the Genius Act now providing stablecoin clarity in the United States, Bruncko argued that Europe’s regulatory lead has largely evaporated. “I don’t think that advantage is really there anymore,” he said.

The question now isn’t whether Europe has better rules—it’s whether Europe will act on them.

The math is straightforward. According to several industry forecasts, global stablecoin supply is projected to exceed $1 trillion within the next five years. If the euro maintains the same share in the traditional financial services as today—roughly one-third the size of dollar-denominated services—Bruncko estimated that this would translate into a €200-300 billion euro stablecoin market.

European businesses don’t want to hold dollar exposure for euro-denominated transactions. A German exporter invoicing a French manufacturer shouldn’t need to convert through USD stablecoins and absorb FX risk. Traders with euro-denominated collateral shouldn’t have to take on currency volatility just to access on-chain liquidity.

Even in 2025’s volatile FX environment, this illustrates why European institutions need euro-native settlement rails to avoid unintended currency exposure.

The European Central Bank has spent years developing a digital euro. It’s positioned as Europe’s answer to private stablecoins, a way to maintain monetary sovereignty in a tokenized world.

Bruncko was blunt about its prospects: “I don’t think it’s really a threat to euro stablecoins simply because even if the digital euro ever happens, it’s not a policy—it’s a technology product. And governments are notoriously bad at running technology products.”

His logic is simple. Innovation in financial technology has always come from the private sector—startups that move fast, build partnerships, and iterate based on market feedback. Central banks don’t operate that way. They can’t.

“If Europe is to catch up with the US in crypto, blockchain, and tokenized financial services, it’s going to happen through privately issued stablecoins,” Bruncko said. “It’s not going to happen through the digital euro.”

There may be a role for central bank digital currencies in Europe’s financial stack. But the real infrastructure—the rails that move payments, settle trades, and enable tokenized finance—will come from regulated private issuers like Schuman Financial.

The use cases for euro stablecoins go far beyond crypto trading. EURØP, Schuman Financial’s MiCA-compliant stablecoin, already powers instant cross-border FX settlements that traditional finance can’t match.

Bruncko described a feature the company just launched: “If you give me USDC, less than 15 minutes later I will give you euros in your bank account.” By contrast, cross-border dollar-to-euro transfers through traditional banking rails take at least two to three days—even with modern payment infrastructure.

That speed matters for institutional treasurers managing liquidity across jurisdictions. It matters for payment companies building real-time settlement networks. And it matters for traders who need to move collateral between fiat and on-chain positions without waiting for T+1 settlement windows.

EURØP is fully integrated into traditional banking infrastructure, with custody provided by Société Générale. It’s not a speculative asset. It’s regulated money that happens to move faster and cheaper than fiat.

“If you keep a balance in EURØP,” Bruncko explained, “because we can settle you in and out of fiat into the stablecoin instantly, it basically means your euro stablecoin suddenly becomes the de facto equivalent of holding fiat.”

Euro stablecoins also unlock liquidity for European traders who currently hold dollar-denominated collateral purely because that’s where market depth exists. As euro stablecoin volume grows, those traders can reduce FX exposure and operate in their native currency—reducing risk and friction in their operations.

Schuman Financial also deployed EURØP on the XRP Ledger for a reason. Ripple has been compliance-first since day one. That alignment matters when you’re regulated in France under the supervision of the Banque de France and the ACPR.

“It’s a battle-tested chain—it’s cheap, it’s fast, and the entire team behind it, from day one, has been thinking about how to build a chain that’s suitable and suited for traditional financial services, and for moving them on-chain,” Bruncko said. “Which is exactly what we’re trying to do with our euro stablecoin at Schuman Financial.”

Ripple’s infrastructure isn’t just about technical performance. It’s about alignment. Ripple built its network to move financial services on-chain, not to replace them. That distinction matters when your customers are banks, payment companies, and asset managers who need regulatory clarity and institutional-grade infrastructure.

During the CoinDesk Live interview, Bruncko made clear that the opportunity for Europe is real, but the window is narrowing. With the US moving aggressively to support dollar stablecoins through the Genius Act and institutions worldwide building on dollar-denominated infrastructure, Europe faces a choice.

The region can build its own euro-native infrastructure through regulated private issuers. Or it can wait for the digital euro and watch the next generation of financial rails get built in dollars.
“I think there will be a couple of winners,” Bruncko said when asked about competition in the euro stablecoin market.

The infrastructure to support those winners already exists. EURØP is live, settling transactions in minutes, audited by KPMG, and held in custody by Société Générale. The regulatory framework is in place through MiCA. The question is whether European institutions will adopt euro-native stablecoin infrastructure—or continue relying on dollar-denominated rails as the global standard solidifies.

The conversation at Ripple Swell made one thing clear: Europe’s financial future won’t be decided by central banks or regulators. It will be decided by the private companies building infrastructure today.