Euro Stablecoin Market Analysis: Relatively Small Scale, But Huge Potential

As the world's second largest currency, the euro plays a crucial role in traditional finance. However, in the blockchain world, the market share of euro stablecoins is less than 1% of that of US dollar stablecoins. Recently, with the entry of some major players, this situation is expected to improve. This article will delve into the issuance mechanisms, scale, and application of several major euro stablecoins.

Euro Tether (EURT): The Euro Attempt of the Stablecoin Giant

Despite the controversies surrounding Tether in terms of compliance and transparency, its position in the stablecoin space remains unshakable. USDT holds the top spot in the stablecoin market with a market capitalization of $65.9 billion. EURT, as Tether's euro stablecoin, employs a centralized issuance model similar to USDT, backed by actual asset reserves.

As of July 21, the issuance of EURT is approximately 108 million, mainly distributed on the Ethereum network. From on-chain data, Bitfinex is the largest holder of EURT, followed by two liquidity pools from Curve, the Polygon cross-chain bridge, and FTX exchange. It is noteworthy that the on-chain activity of EURT is relatively low, with most held by external accounts.

Euro Coin (EUROC): Circle's new military assault

As a major competitor to Tether, Circle recently launched its own euro stablecoin, EUROC. This coin was issued on the Ethereum network on June 30, and Circle claims it is 100% backed by funds in bank accounts denominated in euros.

Due to the short launch time of EUROC and its small issuance, Circle has not yet released detailed data. Blockchain explorers show that the supply of EUROC is about 320,000, mainly held by some unidentified external accounts. In terms of on-chain applications, there is currently only a small amount of liquidity available in the decentralized exchange DFX.

STASIS EURO (EURS): Established Euro stablecoin

EURS is issued by the STASIS platform under the investment services company Exante, and is one of the earlier euro stablecoins to enter the market. Its issuance mechanism is similar to that of Tether, claiming to be backed by a 1:1 reserve account collateral and is audited by the top five global accounting firms.

According to official data, the issuance of EURS is 78.61 million, mainly concentrated on the Ethereum mainnet, while there is also a small distribution on networks such as Arbitrum, Matic, xDAI, Algorand, and Ripple. On-chain data shows that the total supply of EURS is 124 million, with nearly 40% of the liquidity located on the Curve platform, and some liquidity also on Uniswap V3.

agEUR: An Innovative Decentralized Euro Stablecoin

agEUR adopts an innovative decentralized issuance mechanism. Users can mint agEUR 1:1 with supported tokens, while managing exchange rate risk through hedging agents and liquidity providers. Recently, the Angle protocol also introduced lending features, allowing users to mint agEUR by over-collateralizing crypto assets.

Currently, the issuance of agEUR is about 42.83 million. From on-chain data, agEUR's liquidity performance is good, with the total liquidity on Curve and Uniswap V3 exceeding 60% of the total.

Iron Bank EURO (ibEUR): A component of the Fixed Forex project

ibEUR is a part of the Fixed Forex project launched by Andre Cronje last year. The project covers various forex coins, including EUR, ZAR, JPY, CNY, AUD, AED, and more.

ibEUR created 120 million tokens at launch and deposited them into Iron Bank. Users can borrow and lend through Iron Bank or yearn.fi/lend platform. However, most of the tokens are currently unused, with an actual circulating supply of about 10.23 million. Among the circulating ibEUR, over 80% of the liquidity is concentrated in two trading pairs on Curve.

sEUR: Euro synthetic asset in the Synthetix ecosystem

sEUR is a synthetic asset on the Synthetix platform. Users can mint sUSD by over-collateralizing SNX tokens, and then use sUSD to exchange for various synthetic assets, including sEUR.

According to official data from Synthetix, the global debt of sEUR is approximately $7.96 million, equivalent to about 7.8 million sEUR. On the Ethereum mainnet, the issuance of sEUR is about 7.71 million, with 62.6% of the liquidity concentrated in two trading pairs on Curve.

Summary

Although the euro stablecoin market is currently relatively small in scale, the prices of various euro stablecoins can stabilize around 1 euro. Excluding the unused portion of ibEUR, Tether's EURT leads with an issuance of 108 million, while Circle's EUROC is still in its early stages.

Decentralized stablecoins have a wider range of applications on-chain, primarily concentrated on the Curve platform, with Uniswap V3 also holding a certain share. In addition, agEUR and ibEUR can be used for lending in EULER and Iron Bank, respectively. In contrast, EURT has more applications on centralized exchanges, and EURS has also received support from some exchanges.

As more institutions and projects enter the euro stablecoin market, we have reason to believe that this field will welcome greater development space and application scenarios in the future.