Circle’s EURC Grabs 60% of Euro Stablecoins; Faces Criticism

Circle’s EURC holds roughly 60% of euro-denominated stablecoin usage in Europe after rising from about 17% a year earlier, according to on-chain analysis. EURC’s market capitalization is near $460 million. By comparison, Circle’s USDC exceeds $78 billion and the broader stablecoin market is around $320 billion. The wider crypto market has a cumulative cap of about $2.47 trillion, with Bitcoin up more than 8% over the past week.

Analysts and industry observers point to regulatory positioning and licensing as key factors in EURC’s rapid growth rather than product differences. Several native European stablecoin projects, including Qivalis, EURe, EURI and EURA, remain small and face funding gaps and limited incentives for wider adoption. On-chain commentators estimate Circle’s share of euro token usage climbed from roughly 17% to 60% within 12 months.

DeFi analyst Ignas called the outcome “a European fail,” arguing that Europe has repeatedly missed major technology waves and is now lagging in the stablecoin sector. Ignas highlighted Circle’s engagement with European regulators, noting the company hosted “Navigating MiCA” sessions with lawmakers and was among the few top issuers ready with a license when the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets framework came into force. Circle’s head of policy, Dante Disparte, has described MiCA as a potential “GDPR for crypto” and has urged U.K. lawmakers to consider a regulatory approach that combines elements of MiCA and proposed U.S. legislation.

Critics contend that Circle’s regulatory work, together with a French electronic money institution license, allowed the company to scale euro stablecoin operations in Europe quickly. Some market participants point to delistings and reduced availability of competing euro tokens on exchanges as a factor that limited alternatives.

The European Central Bank is exploring a digital euro with a potential launch around 2029 and has proposed a €3,000 holding limit per wallet in draft discussions. Some analysts say such caps could affect how widely a digital euro is used and could allow private-sector tokens with broader features to build network effects before a central bank digital currency gains traction.

Security concerns have intensified scrutiny of Circle after a large exploit of the Solana-based Drift Protocol. The incident involved about $285 million in stolen assets, with attackers moving roughly $71 million in USDC during the event. On-chain investigators and security monitors reported that hackers converted much of the stolen value into USDC and used Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol, CCTP, to bridge about $232 million from Solana to Ethereum. An on-chain investigator known as ZachXBT questioned whether Circle could have acted faster to freeze addresses tied to the activity. Public summaries of recent years list roughly $420 million in losses across 15 cases that involved Circle-related assets.

Circle has urged EU authorities to change parts of the bloc’s distributed ledger and settlement rules, arguing those rules limit use of stablecoins in capital markets. Company officials emphasize that licensing and compliance are necessary to serve both institutional and retail customers in regulated markets.

Regulators, market participants and native issuers continue to debate competition, market concentration, licensing, settlement rules and security oversight as private stablecoins expand in Europe.