The case for local currencies and regulated stablecoins in Europe

The stablecoin market is dominated by dollars. USDT and USDC together account for the vast majority of stablecoin volume globally, and for most of the crypto market's history that dominance simply reflected where liquidity was deepest and infrastructure most developed.

For European businesses and investors, that default carries costs that are easy to overlook. Every dollar stablecoin position is a dollar position, carrying FX exposure that may not be intentional, tied to US monetary policy, and backed by reserves held within US financial infrastructure. In periods of dollar weakness, the real value of those holdings falls in euro terms even when the token itself hasn't moved.

MiCAR, the EU's regulatory framework for stablecoins, establishes a different standard for what a stablecoin can be in Europe. Electronic Money Tokens issued under MiCAR must be 1:1 backed, reserves must be segregated from the issuer's operational funds, and holders have a statutory right of redemption at par value, defined by EU law, not by terms of service. That is a structurally different level of protection from most stablecoins currently in circulation.

EURAU, issued by AllUnity under MiCAR, is built on that foundation. It offers stable euro value without FX exposure, reserve backing held at a European bank, and redemption rights enforced by BaFin. For European businesses that want to hold and move value digitally without converting to dollars and back, it is the more natural instrument.

The broader argument for local currencies on-chain goes further. The dominance of dollar stablecoins in global crypto markets reflects the dominance of the dollar in global finance, not a technical inevitability. As digital asset markets mature and regulatory frameworks like MiCAR develop, the case for bringing more currencies on-chain becomes clearer. Businesses in Brazil, Japan, or Sweden have financial lives denominated in reais, yen, and kronor. A payment infrastructure that only offers dollar settlement is not truly global.

AllUnity's roadmap reflects this. EURAU is the first step in a multi-currency framework designed to bring local currencies on-chain at scale, starting in Europe, expanding to major global currencies. The goal is a digital money layer where any currency is accessible globally, not just the currencies that happened to get there first.