Qivalis, the Amsterdam-based company backed by 37 European banks across 15 countries, said Tuesday it has received authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution from De Nederlandsche Bank. The licence puts Qivalis under ongoing DNB supervision and makes it eligible to issue euro-denominated electronic money tokens, clearing a regulatory requirement the company needed before it can bring its planned stablecoin to market.
"Europe's currency deserves Europe's rules, on-chain," Qivalis wrote on X, adding that the authorisation is "an important step towards our euro-denominated stablecoin, to be issued under MiCA, Europe's regulatory framework for crypto-assets, subject to the completion of the regulatory requirements."
Most crypto trading runs on the dollar. Even for people who have never held one.
— qivalis (@qivaliseu) October 13, 2026
Beyond the largest coins, euro order books thin out or disappear. So your euros get swapped into a dollar stablecoin before the position opens.
That’s the gap Qivalis is working to close: deep euro… pic.twitter.com/v6eHXD0Oc4
CEO Jan-Oliver Sell echoed that framing in the company's press release:
"With this authorisation, Qivalis has taken a very important step towards issuing a euro-denominated EMT. As financial activity moves on-chain, the rules and supervision governing that infrastructure become a question of European autonomy. We believe Europe should have a euro-denominated on-chain settlement asset issued under European law and subject to European regulatory standards."
What the licence actually clears
Under DNB's guidance for the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, an issuer of electronic money tokens must hold either a banking licence or an EMI licence before it can issue. Qivalis now has the latter. Before issuance can start, the company must also notify its supervisor of its intent and submit a token white paper to the relevant authorities, steps the company says it plans to complete "within the next months." The authorisation itself was granted under the Dutch Financial Supervision Act, which governs how the Netherlands implements EU-wide financial rules domestically.
Qivalis says it will run a B2B2X distribution model, meaning the token will reach end users indirectly through banks, exchanges, payment service providers and market infrastructure participants, rather than Qivalis selling directly to consumers. The company has stated it does not currently issue electronic money or provide payment services to the public, a distinction that matters because it marks the boundary of what today's licence actually permits versus what the company plans to do once issuance begins.
Who stands behind the project
Qivalis was founded in September 2025 and counts BBVA, BNP Paribas and ING among its bank shareholders, according to the company's October fact sheet, alongside Groupe BPCE, Rabobank and UniCredit. Governance sits with an independent management team and a supervisory board chaired by Sir Howard Davies, former Chairman of NatWest Group and the UK Financial Services Authority. The board also includes bank nominees from CaixaBank, KBC and RBI alongside independent members, a structure the company says is designed for resilience and interoperability across European markets.
BBVA's own comments when it joined the consortium in February give a clearer picture of what the banks expect to get out of this. At that point, with Qivalis still waiting on its Dutch licence, BBVA said the shared token was meant to let member banks offer customers new euro-payment services and settlement of tokenized financial assets, rather than function as a standalone retail product competing directly with existing bank accounts.
The dollar problem Qivalis says it wants to fix
In a separate post, Qivalis framed its pitch around a structural gap in euro liquidity.
"Most crypto trading runs on the dollar. Even for people who have never held one," the company wrote. "Beyond the largest coins, euro order books thin out or disappear. So your euros get swapped into a dollar stablecoin before the position opens. That's the gap Qivalis is working to close: deep euro pairs, so people who earn and spend in euros can stay in euros from deposit to exit, with no dollar leg in the middle."
That gap is well documented beyond Qivalis's own framing. Dollar-pegged stablecoins such as Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC account for well over 90% of total stablecoin market capitalization, according to data regularly tracked by DefiLlama, while euro-denominated stablecoins remain a small fraction of that figure despite the eurozone representing one of the world's largest currency blocs. The European Central Bank has separately pushed its own digital euro project and voiced concern about the dominance of dollar stablecoins in European markets, which gives a bank-backed euro alternative like Qivalis a policy tailwind beyond its own commercial pitch.
Qivalis plans a full-reserve model for its stablecoin, meaning each token in circulation should be backed one-to-one by reserve assets held in euros, a structure distinct from algorithmic or fractionally-backed stablecoin designs that have drawn regulatory scrutiny elsewhere. The company says the token will serve as "the cornerstone of institutional-grade on-chain payment and settlement infrastructure," though no issuance date has been set beyond the general "next months" timeline given alongside Tuesday's licence announcement.
Kristian Koch
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