Qivalis Gets Dutch E-Money Licence to Issue a Euro Stablecoin

Qivalis, a consortium backed by 37 European banks, has been granted an electronic money institution licence by De Nederlandsche Bank. The Amsterdam-based company said the Dutch central bank's authorisation, announced on 14 October, makes it eligible to issue euro-denominated electronic money tokens and puts it under ongoing DNB supervision.

If you hold stablecoins, nothing about your holdings changes today, because there is no Qivalis token to hold. What the licence does is clear the legal hurdle the project needed to pass: under MiCA, a euro token can only be issued by an authorised electronic money institution or credit institution. The token itself still needs the remaining MiCA steps, including a published white paper, before issuance, which Qivalis says will begin "within the next months."

What the Licence Lets Qivalis Do

Once an EMT exists, the holder has a legal claim against the issuer and the right to redeem at face value at any time. That is the part the licence makes possible: without EMI or credit institution status, nobody can issue the token at all. EMTs also cannot pay interest, so a euro token is a settlement tool, not a savings product.

MiCA splits the market in two. EMTs track a single official currency, such as the euro or the dollar, while other stablecoins can be linked to baskets of currencies or other assets. DNB's register describes an electronic money institution as a firm that issues electronic money, the same category as a gift card or a festival wristband you top up to pay with.

Dollar tokens can qualify too. USDC can be an EMT under MiCA if it meets the requirements, and issuers that fail the rules cannot lawfully offer their tokens to the public in the EU. Not everyone clears that gate: Bitcoin.de turned to regulated partners after BaFin rejected its MiCA licence.

37 Banks, No Volume Figures

Qivalis was founded in September 2025 and now counts 37 banks across 15 countries, including BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING and DZ Bank. It plans to distribute the token through banks, exchanges, payment providers and market infrastructure rather than directly to consumers, and has chosen Fireblocks for its digital asset infrastructure. The token is planned as a full-reserve product, backed 1:1 by reserves held at regulated custodians and segregated from Qivalis' own balance sheet.

Two things the consortium has not disclosed: which of the 37 banks will actually use the token, and how much money it expects to move through it. Its supervisory board is chaired by Sir Howard Davies, a former chairman of NatWest Group and the UK Financial Services Authority.

One caveat if you want to verify the licence yourself. It is confirmed in Qivalis' own announcement and in coverage of it. The DNB publishes a register of electronic money institutions, but its downloadable version could not be read at the time of writing.

The 8 January Date Next Door

ESMA, the EU's securities regulator, published an opinion on 8 October setting out its expectations for stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA. Crypto firms authorised under MiCA should stop providing services linked to non-compliant stablecoins to clients in the EU, and national regulators should require any remaining pre-existing exposures to be fixed as soon as possible and no later than three months after publication. From 8 October 2026, that lands on 8 January 2027.

That deadline is the commercial backdrop to Qivalis' licence. Exchanges carrying euro stablecoin exposure have a date to work to, and a compliant euro EMT is one way to meet it. Qivalis' own argument for the market is the gap it would fill: only 0.2% of global stablecoin circulation is euro-denominated, which it calls a structural dependency European businesses have on other currencies' rails.

"Europe's currency deserves Europe's rules, onchain," said chief executive Jan-Oliver Sell.

Sell also said Europe should have a euro-denominated onchain settlement asset issued under European law and subject to European regulatory standards.

The next observable steps are the white paper and then issuance, both of which Qivalis says are coming in the next months. No token name, ticker or contract address has been disclosed.