EU institutions have designated the USDC of Circle as 'important' in accordance with MiCA.
The second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, classified as an "important electronic currency token," will be under the joint supervision of French and EU regulatory authorities.
The European Banking Authority ( EBA ) has classified the USDC stablecoins of Circle as important electronic money tokens in accordance with the framework of the EU's 'Regulation on Markets in Crypto Assets' ( MiCA ).
The banking regulatory authority stated in a announcement on Wednesday that this classification for digital currency tokens had previously only been granted to 45 other projects. This classification essentially means that the USDC stablecoin will be jointly regulated by the European Banking Authority and the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (Autorit é de Contr ô le Prudentiel et de Ré solution). In terms of market capitalization, the scale of this stablecoin is 73 billion US dollars, while that of Tether's USDt is 184 billion US dollars.
At the time of the introduction of this "important" classification, many token issuers located within the European Union are promoting the launch of regulated US dollar-pegged stablecoins in that region. Stable Mint CEO James Bennett told Cointelegraph that although Europe cannot "eliminate" US dollar stablecoins out of thin air, regulatory authorities can control the safeguards and rules implemented by the issuers.
AllUnity Chief Executive Officer Alexander H ö ptner said to Cointelegraph: "For European companies, providing only euro-stablecoins is not sufficient if they want to make cross-border payments on a global scale."
As regulatory authorities and issuers are increasingly inclined to accept US dollar-stabilized cryptocurrencies, policymakers at the European Central Bank (ECB) are still exploring the possibility of launching a digital euro. Relevant EU institutions first proposed the idea of a central bank digital currency in 2020, and after the legislation is completed and pilot projects are concluded, the currency could potentially be issued as early as 2029.
Related Reading:Qivalis Obtains Dutch electronic currency license for euro-stablecoin use
