Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_62c4a3a356a77" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Negative interest rates in the eurozone have led to fewer stablecoins being pegged to the euro, industry exec says</li>
 <li>US-headquartered Silvergate bank will be listed as the initial custodian of the token</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency-focused peer-to-peer payment processor Circle is looking to build momentum behind its new euro-backed stablecoin.



The stablecoin, EUROC, launched June 30 as Circle’s second stablecoin — which falls more or less in line with the regulatory and security standards of the company’s more prevalent dollar-backed USD Coin (USDC). The company’s other products are mostly related to DeFi, including custodial solutions and lending.&nbsp;



US-headquartered Silvergate bank will be listed as the initial custodian of the token, and it will not be available to non-US customers until relevant licenses are obtained.



A Circle spokesperson told Blockworks the “prudential standards” for the new stablecoin will adhere to US “regulatory standards that apply to leading fintech and payments firms,” including PayPal, Stripe, Square and Venmo. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Pursuant to our licenses, Circle will only solicit customers in the US,” the spokesperson said.</blockquote>



Stablecoins have been important financial infrastructure in the Web3 and DeFi (decentralized finance) space, and Circle’s EUROC marks the first pegged to the euro, the world’s second most-traded traditional finance currency.&nbsp;



It is likely that negative interest rates in Europe had been a large reason as to why so few stablecoins are pegged to the euro, Jonas Gross, head of digital assets and currencies at Etonec, told Blockworks.



“Fiat-backed euro stablecoins use the funds collected from users to invest in government bonds or to put this money in a bank account,” Gross said. “For both variants, interest rates have been negative for a long time. Thus, it was unprofitable to issue a fiat-backed euro stablecoin. As interest rates are generally increasing…the business model behind stablecoins becomes more promising.”



The status quo on rates — combined with the collapse of Terra stablecoin UST — triggered waves of uncertainty around stablecoin regulation in the European Union, including the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill.



“Due to the regulatory uncertainty and the publication of MiCA in the EU (with specific regard to stable coins) multiple companies and startups in Europe are hesitant to build a stablecoin or Euro-pegged stablecoin in particular,” Maximilian Forster, co-founder and chief business officer of payments engine solution CashOnLedger, told Blockworks.



EU regulators recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/eu-members-reach-agreement-on-mica/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reached an agreement</a> on MiCA which highlighted that large stablecoins will be subject to operational and prudential rules, and have a cap of 200 million euros in transactions per day.&nbsp;



European Parliament member Ernest Urtasun noted on <a href="https://twitter.com/ernesturtasun/status/1542591819980087297" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter</a> stablecoin reserves will have to be “legally and operationally segregated and insulated” and must be “fully protected in case of insolvency.”



Under MiCA guidelines, according to Forster, euro-backed stablecoins can only be traded on European grounds.



“Ultimately, the demand and critical mass will define the success and adoption rate of the EUROC,” Forster said.



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Circle’s EUROC Stablecoin Will Trade Only Within the US — at Least for Now

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_62a9e57603c2a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NFT collectibles saw $6 billion in trading volume in the first quarter of 2022</li>
 <li>“If you want to be a global market, crypto is fundamentally the best deposit mechanism,&#8221; Dibbs CEO says</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Collectors looking to score on trading cards, comic books, coins and stamps are pivoting to NFTs to secure their prized items.



Collectibles are the leading segment in the NFT (non-fungible token) industry, with a total USD trading volume of about $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, up 29.7% from the previous quarter. Its market share is significantly higher than the art or metaverse segments of the market in terms of volume traded, <a href="https://nonfungible.com/reports/2022/en/q1-quarterly-nft-market-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to data from Nonfungible.com.&nbsp;



North America holds the largest market share for collectibles, said Evan Vandenberg, CEO of blockchain-enabled fractional trading card marketplace Dibbs.



Dibbs users can instantly buy or sell fractions of collectable assets, such as NFL trading cards or Hulk comic books, that are authenticated, vaulted, insured, tokenized and minted into the spot exchange-like marketplace.



In a bid to reach more consumers, Dibbs, previously accepting only fiat, is now expanding its payment options for its physically-backed NFTs with with Circle’s stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) integration, the company announced Wednesday.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“If you want to be a global market, crypto is fundamentally the best deposit mechanism. It doesn’t care where you live,” Vandenberg told Blockworks.</blockquote>



Circle, which partners with Coinbase in the Centre Consortium governing USDC, will support Dibbs on all blockchains that currently integrate USDC, such as Algorand, Avalanche, Ethereum, Flow, Hedera, Solana, Stellar, TRON and the Polygon network via bridged USDC.



“As global e-commerce grows, consumers are looking toward dollar digital assets like USDC for a more efficient and low-friction form of payment that can complement their digital retail experiences,” Circle told Blockworks.



Circle added that the main benefits include “a more seamless, cost-effective, and secure transaction process” for buyers, while sellers will benefit from “more efficient settlements at the point of sale to help them monetize and grow their collectibles business with both fiat and dollar digital currencies.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">From physical to digital</h3>



Vandenberg, who described himself as a life-long collector of cards, particularly first-edition Pokemon cards, believes that there is “more consumptive value in these things being digitized, than actually being physically held.”&nbsp;



He explained that it isn&#8217;t about removing the physical, but simply just “moving it from your hand” into vaults. As both collectible and wearable NFTs become valuable to users who spend more time in digital worlds, these assets play a larger role in people’s digital identities.



The growth of the collectibles market will rely on a marketplace’s guarantee of accessibility to rare assets, speed of transaction and liquidity, and trustworthiness, he said.



And sharing a personal collection in a more meaningful and scalable way, added Vandenberg, requires being part of and transacting with a community “that cares about what you care about.”



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