Blockchain payment platform e-Money is bringing its fiat-pegged European stablecoins to the Ethereum-rivalling Avalanche network.
Next week, at the annual Avalanche Summit in Barcelona, the Danish fintech firm will introduce its suite of fully collateralized interest-bearing stablecoins to the blockchain, giving Avalanche users the opportunity to trade e-Money’s stablecoins, Euros (EEUR), Swiss francs (ECHF), Norwegian krone (ENOK), Swedish krona (ESEK), and Danish krone (EDKK).
By allowing European members of the Avalanche community to perform transactions in their own native currencies, e-Money aims to expand the reach of the blockchain while fostering the adoption of crypto-assets more generally.
An Avalanche of Stablecoins
The arrival of e-Money’s European stablecoins on Avalanche is a major milestone for the Copenhagen-based company, which started life in 2016. Built on Cosmos technology, the platform’s range of liquid, trusted stablecoins are backed with government bonds and deposits held at commercial banks, with proof of funds confirmed by Ernst & Young.
Stablecoins are a major pillar of the crypto ecosystem, though the vast majority of them are pegged to the US dollar. Ubiquitous fiat-collateralised stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) retain their one-to-one peg by using trusted custodians to hold an equivalent amount of fiat tender in reserves. Considered a vital building block for defi traders, the popularity of stablecoins has soared in recent times: the global market is currently worth a staggering $184.5 billion, up from around $60 billion just 12 months ago.
e-Money’s stablecoins function a little differently to those users have become accustomed to though, as their value continually shifts according to interest accrued on the reserve assets. By maintaining a slow-moving dynamic peg, during period of positive interest e-Money stablecoins essentially offers users the prospect of earning a return simply from holding assets in their wallet and in a negative interest environment, the tokens remain flexible and won’t break their peg. The platform’s native chain, meanwhile, facilitates immediate finality with near-zero fees.
With the arrival of e-Money’s fiat-backed digital currencies on Avalanche, European enterprises can plug into defi on terms that are favourable to them, while end users can send and receive payments quickly without having to worry about market volatility wiping out their margins.
Avalanche has only recently welcomed stablecoins to its ecosystem, with both USDT and USDC launching on the open-source network late last year. This latest partnership, however, marks the first time European stablecoins have been made available in its defi ecosystem.
The scalable smart contracts platform, which supports a raft of decentralised applications and custom blockchains, has quickly become the third largest chain by Total Value Locked (TVL), behind only Terra and Ethereum. At the time of writing, some $15.5 billion is locked in its defi applications.
It is not the first time e-Money’s fully collateralized European stablecoins have made their way onto the blockchain. Last year, the protocol launched its range on the Cosmos and Ethereum network, enabling their use in that ecosystem’s decentralised exchanges (DEXs) and liquidity mining campaigns such as Osmosis AMM and Sifchain. The stablecoins will soon debut on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Algrorand, Polygon, Elrond and a number of play-to-earn gamefi projects are considering integrating the suite into their metaverses.
Details of which protocols and AMMs will be the first to feature e-Money’s stablecoins are expected next week when developers, researchers and investors from around the world will descend on Barcelona to discuss all things Avalanche.
Image: Pixabay