Qivalis, an Amsterdam-based company set up by European banks to issue a digital token tied to the euro, has been authorised as an electronic money institution (EMI) by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank. The decision places Qivalis under DNB’s ongoing supervision and makes it eligible to issue euro-denominated electronic money tokens.
The company is backed by 37 banks from 15 European countries. It plans to begin issuing its token within the next months, subject to the remaining MiCA requirements and the publication of a white paper, the disclosure document the law requires. Qivalis called the licence a decisive regulatory condition for issuance.
A stablecoin is a crypto token built to hold a steady value, usually by tracking a national currency one for one. “Europe’s currency deserves Europe’s rules - on-chain,” said Jan-Oliver Sell, chief executive of Qivalis. He said that as financial activity moves onto blockchain networks, the rules and supervision behind that infrastructure become “a question of European autonomy”.
What An E-Money Licence Means
An EMI is a firm licensed to issue electronic money, a digital stand-in for cash that holders can claim back from the issuer, without holding a full banking licence. MiCA calls a stablecoin that tracks a single official currency an e-money token, and only banks and EMIs may offer one to the public in the EU. Qivalis’s planned euro token falls into this group.
MiCA requires e-money token issuers to create tokens at par value when they receive funds, and to buy them back at par, at any time, when a holder asks. Issuers may not pay holders interest. At least 30% of the money received must sit in separate accounts at banks, with the rest in secure, low-risk assets in the same currency.
The white paper must cover the issuer and the token, the rights and obligations of holders, the technology underneath, the risks and the environmental impact of the system used to issue it. Supervisors do not approve these papers in advance; issuers notify them instead. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) handles e-money token white papers, which also go to DNB.
Qivalis plans to distribute the token through what it calls a business-to-business-to-X (B2B2X) model. It will supply eligible counterparties, such as banks, exchanges, payment service providers and market infrastructure firms, which can then pass it on to their own customers. The company says it will back the token with full reserves and pitches it as the base of institutional-grade on-chain payment and settlement.
From Nine Founders To 37 Banks
The project went public on 25 September 2025, when nine banks said they had formed a company in the Netherlands to issue a euro stablecoin. They were ING, UniCredit, CaixaBank, Danske Bank, KBC, SEB, DekaBank, Banca Sella and Raiffeisen Bank International. They planned to seek an e-money licence from DNB and expected first issuance in the second half of 2026.
BNP Paribas joined on 1 December 2025, and the venture unveiled the Qivalis name and its leadership the next day. BBVA and DZ Bank also came on board, taking membership to 12. Then, on 20 May 2026, 25 more banks signed up at once, among them ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Nordea, Intesa Sanpaolo, Erste Group, Groupe BPCE and Bank of Ireland.
“The euro is Europe’s currency, and on-chain financial infrastructure should carry it,” Sell said at the time. The 37 members now span 15 countries, from Iceland’s Landsbankinn to Poland’s Bank Pekao and Greece’s Piraeus. Qivalis says it operates independently of its backers, with its own management team and a supervisory board that includes independent members.
A Crypto Veteran And An Ex-Regulator
Sell spent 18 years in senior asset management roles in the City of London. As managing director of Coinbase Germany, the local arm of the US crypto exchange, he helped secure the first crypto custody licence granted by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). He also held leadership roles at the crypto exchange Binance.
Sir Howard Davies chairs the supervisory board. He was the first chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, from 1997 to 2003, and director of the London School of Economics from 2003 to 2011. Earlier he served as deputy governor of the Bank of England, and he later chaired NatWest Group.
Chief financial officer Floris Lugt led digital assets at ING’s wholesale bank and was one of the project’s public spokespeople at its launch. Olga Elsenga, previously head of legal at ClearBank Europe, joined the management board as chief risk and compliance officer on 1 October. At ClearBank she worked on the bank’s licensing with DNB and the European Central Bank (ECB).
A Euro Coin In A Dollar Market
Qivalis is entering a market priced almost entirely in dollars. In November 2025 the ECB put euro-denominated stablecoins at about €395M in total, while dollar tokens made up about 99% of supply. Tether’s USDT, the largest, was worth $184B, or 63% of total stablecoin value, with Circle’s USDC at $75B.
As of 14 October 2026, figures from the crypto data site CoinGecko put all euro stablecoins together at under $1B, against about $300B for stablecoins as a whole. Circle’s EURC was the largest euro token at about $490M, ahead of EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) at about $190M.
EURCV comes from SG-Forge, the digital assets subsidiary of French bank Société Générale. SG-Forge holds an EMI licence from France’s Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) and restructured EURCV as an e-money token in July 2024. Circle issues EURC, like USDC, through a French subsidiary that is also licensed by the ACPR as an EMI.
Rules Tighten Around Rival Tokens
On 8 October the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s markets watchdog, said licensed crypto firms should stop offering services in stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA. It named no token, but the group includes Tether’s USDT, which has no MiCA authorisation. National regulators should require clients’ existing holdings to be wound down within three months.
The ECB’s November 2025 financial stability review warned that a loss of confidence in redemption at par could set off runs, and that strong growth in stablecoins could draw retail deposits away from banks, an important source of their funding. It judged the risks to the euro area limited for now, but said the rapid growth justified close monitoring.
The ECB is also working on a digital euro, a central bank form of digital cash. In October 2025 it said a first issuance was possible during 2029, assuming EU lawmakers adopt the necessary regulation in the course of 2026.
In a July 2025 ECB blog post, adviser Jürgen Schaaf wrote that dollar stablecoins could cement their early lead in tokenised settlement unless credible euro alternatives emerge. Qivalis presents its bank-backed token as one such alternative, issued under European law and supervised by the Dutch central bank.
