As Europe prepares for the final enforcement deadline of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) by year’s end, a new euro-backed stablecoin is entering the market.
Schuman Financial, a new cryptocurrency firm founded by former Binance executives, including Martin Bruncko and Eduardo Morrison, has officially emerged from stealth mode with the launch of a new euro-pegged stablecoin, EURØP.
EURØP’s launch comes after Schuman Financial closed an oversubscribed 7 million euro ($7.36 million) seed round led by the Web3 venture capital firm RockawayX in September, the firm said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 26.
Schuman Financial’s co-founder, Martin Bruncko, is a former Binance executive vice president of Europe. Source: Forbes
Additional investors included Lightspeed Faction, Kraken Ventures, Nexo Ventures, GnosisVC, Delta Blockchain Fund, Renaissance Ambition AG, Bankless Ventures and others.
EURØP set to go live soon
Schuman Financial’s initial product, EURØP, is a 1:1 pegged euro-denominated stablecoin targeting global users, with use cases including digital payments, onchain foreign exchange trading and tokenized real-world assets.
The new stablecoin is fully backed by cash and cash equivalents and is expected to go live shortly, a spokesperson for Schuman Financial told Cointelegraph. They said:
“While we don’t have an exact date, it should be live in the next two weeks.”
Initially set to be available on the Ethereum and Polygon networks, EURØP is expected to list on all major European centralized crypto exchanges. Schuman Financial said additional blockchain and decentralized finance integrations will follow in the coming months.
The new stablecoin labels 107 countries as “high-risk” ones
While targeting global users, Schuman Financial will not be available worldwide, outright restricting countries like Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and the Russian Federation, a spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
The representative also referred to the company’s high-risk jurisdictions list, which included 107 countries at the time of writing.
The list contains some of the biggest stablecoin markets, such as Turkey, which had the highest stablecoin purchases relative to its gross domestic product in April. El Salvador, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates also appear on the list.
Related: Tether, Kraken, Fabric Ventures back new MiCA-compliant stablecoins
This list is compiled using information from internationally recognized bodies, including the Financial Action Task Force, the European Union, the United Nations, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and Transparency International.
Schuman Financial’s subsidiary Salvus SAS acquired a stablecoin issuer license in France
According to Schuman Financial’s representative, EURØP’s compliance with the MiCA framework was achieved through the acquisition of an electronic money institution by its subsidiary, Salvus SAS.
The French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority approved Salvus SAS’s e-money token license, enabling Schuman Financial to issue e-money tokens pegged to any currency legally across the European market.
With the approval, Schuman Financial is building a regulated stablecoin ecosystem featuring integration with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), as well as banking channels and custody with major global banks, including Société Générale.
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