Speaking to Cointelegraph, Brahimi noted that 18 months ago most conversations were educational, centered on understanding stablecoins and their risks. Today, firms with board-level approval are preparing to go live. He attributed the shift in part to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which replaces a patchwork of national rules with a single bloc-wide framework.
“In the past year and a half, some of Europe’s most stringent financial institutions are converging on a single conclusion: digital assets, including stablecoins, belong inside the existing banking stack, not beside it,” Brahimi said.
Corporate treasury teams are a primary driver of this demand. Initially focused on payments and settlement, firms are now looking to use stablecoins to move funds faster, reduce costs, and operate outside traditional banking hours, Brahimi added.
Related: Bank of France calls for tougher MiCA limits on stablecoin payments
Key takeaways
- MiCA is transforming stablecoin talks into concrete actions, with banks and corporates seeking regulated, on-chain settlement rails rather than ad hoc pilots.
- ClearBank Europe became the first Dutch credit institution to obtain MiCA clearance to operate as a crypto asset service provider, signaling a regulatory green light for regulated custody and related services.
- A consortium including ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank and BBVA is pursuing Qivalis, a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin designed to enable regulated on-chain payments across Europe.
- European banks are advancing their own euro-stablecoin initiatives, with Societe Generale and Oddo BHF deploying MiCA-compliant offerings for cross-border, on-chain settlement, and cash management.
Retail banks and cross-border rails take shape
In a notable regulatory milestone, ClearBank Europe announced that it had become the first Dutch credit institution to secure MiCA approval to offer crypto asset services. The development underlines how European banks are moving from exploratory dialogues to tangible capabilities that can underpin everyday stablecoin activity.
Beyond this, a broader initiative is taking shape as a consortium of major banks — including ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank and BBVA — advances Qivalis, a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin intended to support regulated on-chain payments and settlement across the region. The project aims to provide a standardized, compliant rails layer that banks can leverage for cross-border finance and intra-European settlement.
European lenders are also advancing their own stablecoin programs. Societe Generale has positioned its euro-stablecoin strategy around cross-border payments, on-chain settlement, FX and cash management, while Oddo BHF has launched a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin, signaling a growing comfort with euro-denominated digital assets within traditional banking lines.
Meanwhile, a separate cross-border effort led by a consortium of banks, including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas, is planning a Swiss-franc stablecoin for the second half of 2026, signaling continued expansion of multi-currency stablecoin infrastructure within Europe.
Corporate demand shapes the velocity of stablecoins
Paybis, a platform focused on stablecoin trading and fiat on-ramps, has observed rising demand for compatible stablecoins in Europe. Konstantin Vasilenko, Paybis’ co-founder and chief business development officer, noted a marked uptick in stablecoin activity across the EU in late 2025 and early 2026.
Between October 2025 and March 2026, USDC volume on Paybis in the EU rose roughly 109%, and its share of total stablecoin activity increased from about 13% to 32%. Vasilenko highlighted that stablecoin buyer volume in the EU tended to outpace seller volume by roughly five to six times during that period. He also observed that average stablecoin transaction sizes were about 15% to 35% larger than typical BTC or ETH trades, suggesting larger working-capital and settlement use cases rather than mere trading activity.
Forecasts point to a radically higher stablecoin footprint
Industry-wide estimates suggest a rapid expansion in stablecoin activity over the next decade. A Chainalysis report projects that organic growth could push stablecoin transaction volumes to as high as $719 trillion by 2035, up from about $28 trillion in 2025. In a more aggressive scenario, volumes could reach $1.5 quadrillion if stablecoins become a dominant payments infrastructure and wealth transfer accelerates toward crypto-native models.
Will Harborne, CEO of Rhino.fi, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, emphasized that stablecoins are increasingly central to corporate treasury, cross-border settlement, and foreign-exchange activity between euro- and dollar-denominated stablecoins. “I think every business will eventually start accepting and using stablecoins in some form,” he said, adding that early preparation will position companies well as mainstream adoption accelerates.
What this means for the broader market
The regulatory backdrop provided by MiCA is not just a compliance checkbox; it is shaping how financial institutions structure their digital-asset programs. By offering clear, uniform rules, MiCA reduces the friction that previously slowed cross-border stablecoin activity and on-chain settlement for large buyers. The move appears to be aligning traditional finance with the evolving digital-asset ecosystem, turning what began as a technology experiment into a concrete, bank-ready ledger infrastructure.
For investors and builders, the current trajectory suggests uneven but persistent momentum: institutions are coordinating around stablecoins as a core element of treasury operations and payments rails, while the market begins to price in the likelihood of regulated, interoperable euro and Swiss-franc stablecoins becoming commonplace in European settlement flows. The trajectory could be amplified if MiCA-driven infrastructure proves scalable and secure enough to support high-volume, cross-border uses while maintaining compliance with anti-money-laundering and consumer-protection standards.
In the near term, observers will be watching the rollout of Qivalis and related MiCA-compliant euro-stablecoin initiatives for concrete milestones: regulatory approvals, on-chain settlement pilots, and cross-border settlement use cases with real corporate participants. If the European banking sector can translate these initiatives into reliable, cost-saving rails, the region could become a blueprint for stablecoin-enabled finance globally.
Readers should keep an eye on how these regulatory and institutional developments converge with the ongoing evolution of stablecoin market structure, custody solutions, and on-chain infrastructure — especially as more banks begin to treat digital assets as part of the core financial stack rather than a peripheral capability.
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