Why Euro Stablecoins
Are the Next Big Thing

A few years ago, while I was managing the European operations at the world’s largest company in the digital asset space, Binance, I raised a simple problem with my colleagues: “Europe is a market of roughly half a billion people, and basically every one of them only uses euros in their daily life. So when we run our marketing promotions, like trading discounts and vouchers, how come we offer them in dollars?” It was a really rhetorical question with a simple answer. The crypto world does not operate with cash (fiat money) but stablecoins. And at that time, there was no meaningful euro stablecoin to use.

Fast forward to 2025, and you still have the same problem: more than 99% of the stablecoins that circulate in the market are denominated in USD. But change the perspective, and you realise that more than a problem, this is actually one of the greatest entrepreneurial opportunities in finance today. This is also precisely why we’ve launched Schuman Financial.

Put simply, we strongly believe that the growth of the euro stablecoin market from a few hundred million today to tens of billions and eventually hundreds of billions is inevitable. Whoever establishes the leading euro stablecoin with a robust ecosystem will not only secure a stable position in the market but also create a highly lucrative and sustainable business. This business can actually become the bedrock of a future major financial institution that might dominate European finance for decades to come.

Our logic is simple. If you believe (1.) that financial services are in the process of moving on-chain and at the same time (2.) that the European economy will not dollarize in the coming decade(s), then you are also forced to conclude that the euro stablecoin market will soon become massive. I will unpack the details of our reasoning in the rest of this article.

The euro-denominated financial markets are currently about a third of the size of their USD-denominated counterparts. This isn’t a temporary situation but a structural reality. Europe isn’t going to dollarize anytime soon, if ever. European political and policy leaders would never allow it. As the main currency in the EU, it is both a symbol of political sovereignty and of European unification. Moreover, European politicians have increasingly emphasized that Europe also needs to ensure its technological sovereignty. Since blockchain is the ultimate technology for storing and moving financial value, European policymakers have already made it clear in MiCA that they will not tolerate using any other stablecoins than those denominated in euros to become a major medium for financial transactions in the EU.

A structural shift is occurring in financial services as they rapidly transition on-chain. Right now, the utilization of blockchain in finance is largely constrained to the trading of native crypto assets, such as bitcoin and various altcoins. This is still a tiny market compared to traditional finance (TradFi.) In fact, the daily volume of crypto trading on all the centralized crypto exchanges is still less than 50% of the daily trading volume of a single foreign exchange pair in TradFi: USD to EUR. However, digital asset markets are maturing at an extraordinary rate. They’re not just growing but effectively merging with TradFi. This transaction of traditional financial services to blockchain is practically inevitable for a simple reason: blockchain is a much better technology for storing and moving financial value than anything else we’ve had until now. You can compare it to the internet, which is a much better technology for storing and moving information than anything before it.

It took a couple of decades until it properly matured and until clever entrepreneurs figured out how to use it to its full potential. But at that point, it did not just complement traditional information flows; it completely transformed them. As recently as 20 years ago, we could not even imagine, let alone understand, such things as an app store. After all, we still did not have mobile internet or smartphones. Yet today, we cannot imagine our life without it. The same will happen to finance when we fully figure out its benefits, use cases and applications in finance. We already know that tokenized bonds or equities (“registered” on the blockchain) or currencies (forex) can be exchanged with much higher transparency, speed, and efficiency. Or that payments can move much faster and more cheaply, even in places with very limited financial infrastructure today. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, just like putting newspapers online was in the 1990s. The exciting stuff is yet to come, so get ready for a ride.

If tokenized finance is the future and Europe will stick to the Euro, then a massive growth of euro-denominated stablecoins is inevitable because the only viable way to process euro-denominated financial services on-chain is through euro stablecoins. Trading or settling these in USD-denominated stablecoins would not really work, as it would introduce a foreign exchange layer into these transactions, with additional risks and costs. Trading them with fiat euro (not on the blockchain) makes no sense, as it would mean that a part of the transaction is off-chain. It would be like calling your friend on a smartphone from an old analogue phone. It works, but you can do so much more when you are both using smartphones.

Establishing safe, secure, efficient, and fast-growing euro stablecoins requires more than just a good technological solution. Building the leading euro stablecoin requires a team with a deep understanding, experience, and network in both traditional finance and the crypto-native space—and ideally, also in the relevant EU institutions and governments.

This means that the leading euro stablecoin will very likely have to come from an independent European startup. History has shown that true innovation rarely comes from established players, and even less so in the context of TradFi. Banks and traditional institutions are often laggards when it comes to the adoption of new technologies. And understandably so. They need to know that the technology is viable and highly secure before deploying it to millions of clients. However, the challenge legacy financial institutions face when building stablecoins is not just their lack of crypto-native experience or the slow pace of innovation in large organizations. Why would other large banks want to utilize stablecoins issued by their direct competitor? This would mean ceding to it both revenue and competitive advantage.

On the other hand, with their agility, vision and willingness to challenge established paradigms, startups have always been the drivers of transformative changes. That’s why we have embarked on this mission. Our goal is to build not just a euro stablecoin but also become a new champion in European and global finance. At Schuman Financial, we’re not just creating a euro stablecoin; we’re laying the foundations and infrastructure for the next generation of finance. A future where finance is on-chain, widely accessible, inclusive, and more efficient. The opportunities are immense. And we intend to be at the forefront of this transformation.