Yesterday, the issuer of the USDC and EURC stablecoins Circle said it received provisional approval as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) from the French regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). Final approval is contingent on receiving an e-money license. It applied in March for the license from the Banque de France’s prudential regulator ACPR. Additionally, it announced a leader for France.
Under the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), registration with one EU regulator allows a provider to operate across the EU.
Circle announced Coralie Billmann will head Circle in France. She spent more than nine years at PayPal in Luxembourg as EMEA Treasurer until mid-2022. PayPal is actually registered as a bank in Luxembourg. Until last month she was COO at 3S Money, the international business payment platform. In between the two roles she worked briefly at JP Morgan on High Tech Growth sales.
Billmann’s LinkedIn profile mentions she is the President of Circle France and VP of Europe.
Circle launched the EURC (formerly EUROC) stablecoin in mid-2022. It is currently issued out of the United States and 100% backed by Euro reserves with U.S. banks. EURC has a market capitalization of around €50 million, while USDC is just shy of $25 billion.
“For over a decade, Circle has embraced a regulatory-first approach in advancing the use of blockchain technology and full-reserve payment stablecoins to empower businesses, promote financial inclusion and drive internet-speed global payments,” said Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder, CEO and Chairman at Circle. “The issuance of this conditional DASP registration in France marks a significant early milestone as we work towards establishing our European regulatory platform.”
Meanwhile, yesterday the AMF also approved Coinbase for digital asset custody, trading and settlement.
