Finnish FinTech Membrane Finance, a company building a European alternative to the USD stablecoin, has secured its e-money licence and raised €2m.
The seed funding round was led by Finnish seed stage venture capital company Maki.vc.
According to Finextra, with the Electronic Money licence secured, EUROe – Membrane’s product – will become the first regulated EUR-based, full-reserve stablecoin in the EU.
Planned to launch early next year, EUROe is a fully reserved, Euro-nominated stablecoin that brings fiat Euro liquidity on-chain, bridging the traditional financial systems to the world’s leading blockchains.
The firm’s goal for EUROe is an ecosystem of secure money infrastructure, user-friendly applications and stablecoin-related services, that help drive the adoption of innovative blockchain services/applications in Europe.
The company said it expects that the upcoming EU MiCA regulatory regime for crypto assets will ultimately pave the way for broader co-operation with traditional financial institutions.
Membrane Finance CEO and co-founder Juha Viitala said, “We’ve been working towards this very goal for the last 18 months. Getting an EU-level license and the opportunity to finally build a truly regulated EUR-based stable coin is massive news for both us, and the wider European cryptocurrency market and community.”
“We have a strong protectionistic perspective in building EUROe. An EU version must be introduced to the market to compete globally with other currencies. Keeping euro reserves in the ETA region and preventing reserve cumulation outside the EU is mandatory to keep up with the competition.”
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