Quantoz Payments: Introducing MiCA-compliant stablecoins USDQ, EURQ and EURD

Stablecoins have received widespread recognition and use in the crypto world, thanks to their ability to provide stability and certainty in an otherwise volatile trading environment. Assets like USDT and USDC have become the go-to tools for fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat transactions. However, for about a decade, stablecoin cryptocurrencies operated without defined regulation and oversight in the European market — which, incidentally, has always been characterized by high levels of regulatory control.

The first crypto-focused regulatory steps in the European Union (EU) were taken in 2023 when the European Parliament adopted the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. MiCA aims to provide guidance on the adoption of blockchain-based assets in the EU, and also deals with the specific topic of stablecoins. The regulation came into effect in December 2024.

Under MiCA, stablecoins and similar assets are largely defined under two categories — electronic money tokens (EMTs) and asset-referenced tokens (ARTs). One of the first companies to leverage MiCA to offer regulated stablecoin assets in the European market is the Netherlands-based Quantoz Payments, a provider of regulated, fiat-backed EMT assets — USDQ, EURQ and EURD. Backed by the euro or the US dollar, these stablecoins can facilitate payments, merchant adoption and decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases in a compliant fashion within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) countries, which are the jurisdictions covered by MiCA.

Key Takeaways:

• Quantoz Payments is a fintech company that offers three EMT assets compliant with the EU's MiCA regulation — USDQ, EURQ and EURD.

• These electronic money tokens (EMTs) are stablecoins pegged to the US dollar (for USDQ) or euro (for EURQ and EURD). The tokens are backed by the reserves of the respective fiat currency maintained independently by Stichting Quantoz, a bankruptcy-remote foundation.