Stablecoin cards in Europe
A stablecoin card is a payment card linked to a stablecoin balance. The merchant takes a normal card payment in local currency; the conversion happens between the balance and the card network. Dated events are in the calendar below.
How a stablecoin card works
Bridge, a Stripe company, built a stablecoin-linked card product with Visa that fintechs integrate through one API. When the cardholder pays, Bridge deducts the amount from the customer's stablecoin balance and converts it to fiat, so the merchant receives local currency as for any other card payment. The product started in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile, with Europe named as a next market.
Visa also settles with card issuers in stablecoins; the Visa page describes its settlement in USDC.
Euro stablecoin cards
In Europe the balance can be held in a euro token. Monerium names Gnosis Pay among the partners that use its euro e-money token EURe, and lists card payments among the uses of EURe. A euro balance avoids the currency conversion that a dollar stablecoin card adds to a payment in euros.
What a card program has to cover in the EU
A stablecoin card combines two sets of rules. The card side is a payment service, described on the card payments in Germany page. The token side falls under MiCA: converting a stablecoin into euros on behalf of a client is a crypto-asset service, and the e-money token itself must come from a bank or an e-money institution. Article 50 rules out interest on the balance, so a card program cannot pay holders for keeping funds on the card.
Upcoming events on payments and digital money
Finance Loop and stablecoin cards
Finance Loop is the meeting place for card issuers, payment firms and banks that add stablecoins to card programs. Finance Loop supported the Bybit EU x Circle Roadshow in Frankfurt with two panels on stablecoins, USDC and EURC. At Capital & Code, with Finance Loop as media partner, Mastercard, Worldline and PayPal discuss the future of payments.
Payments & Digital Money
Risk & Compliance
What is a stablecoin card?
A debit or prepaid card that spends from a stablecoin balance. The card program converts the stablecoins at the moment of payment, and the merchant receives its usual currency.
Does the merchant receive stablecoins?
Usually not. The merchant is paid in local currency through the card network, and the conversion from stablecoin to fiat happens on the cardholder's side.
Are there euro stablecoin cards?
Yes. Card programs in Europe can spend from euro e-money tokens such as Monerium's EURe, which Monerium lists for card payments with partners like Gnosis Pay.
Stablecoin cards and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers stablecoin cards in its Payments & Digital Money track, next to card payments and instant payments. Finance Loop is media partner of Capital & Code, hosted by the euro stablecoin issuer AllUnity in Frankfurt, and strategic partner of the Digital Euro Association.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.