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Circle is basically telling Brussels: your crypto rulebook is so tight that even the "good" stablecoins cannot play. [1]
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Circle's ask: lower the thresholds that gatekeep crypto settlement

Circle, the issuer behind USDC$1.0005 and the euro stablecoin EURC$1.16, has urged the European Commission to ease proposed compliance thresholds in the Commission's new Market Integration Package (MIP), a policy push meant to strengthen and unify Europe's capital markets. [2]
Circle's core argument is straightforward: the MIP's proposed triggers for when institutions can use certain crypto rails in settlement are set in a way that blocks adoption before the market can even form. In its public response released Monday, Circle said no euro-denominated "e-money token", including EURC$1.16, currently meets the framework's proposed market-cap threshold tied to settlement use. [3]

That creates a chicken-and-egg problem. If the bar is set beyond today's market reality, euro stablecoins stay sidelined, and the market never gets the chance to grow into the threshold.

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Why Circle cares: euro stablecoins still have small bags

Circle is not arguing against oversight. It's arguing against threshold design that effectively reserves institutional settlement use for a hypothetical future where euro stablecoins are already massive.

Circle's point that no euro EMT has reached the proposed market-cap level is also a quiet shot across the bow at Europe's stablecoin trajectory: euro-denominated stablecoins are still relatively small compared with dollar peers, and policy can either nurture that market or keep it permanently niche.

For Circle, this is also commercial. EURC$1.16's path to relevance runs through institutional usage (treasuries, brokerages, payment processors), not just retail trading pairs.

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The policy tension: integration vs. risk controls

The Commission's Market Integration Package is framed as a capital markets strengthening initiative. Stablecoin settlement and tokenized cash legibility fit that agenda, but only if the compliance mechanics do not overcorrect.

Circle is effectively warning that the MIP, as drafted, could hardwire two outcomes: [4]

  1. Institutions avoid crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) because the compliance triggers are too restrictive or unclear.
  2. Euro stablecoin settlement remains theoretical, which weakens Europe's ability to compete with jurisdictions where regulated stablecoins are already being used in real payment and market plumbing.
That's the trade-off regulators keep wrestling with: tighter rails reduce blowups, but they can also drain liquidity and delay legitimate adoption until the rest of the world has already moved on.
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What's really being debated: when "safe enough" becomes "never allowed"

Circle's submission positions the thresholds as the practical bottleneck, not the concept of regulation itself. The firm is pushing for rules that let institutions test and scale stablecoin settlement under supervision, rather than rules that only unlock after a token is already systemically large.
There's also a political economy angle. If euro stablecoins cannot be used meaningfully for settlement inside EU frameworks, dollar stablecoins and offshore alternatives keep winning by default in crypto markets, even across European user bases. Circle's message to policymakers is basically: if Europe wants euro-denominated digital money to matter, it cannot regulate it like a forbidden experiment.

What to watch next

EU policymakers now have to decide whether the MIP's proposed thresholds are meant to be guardrails or gate locks.

If the Commission signals willingness to recalibrate the market-cap trigger and related institutional access thresholds, watch for EURC and other euro stablecoin issuers to lean harder into regulated settlement and payments partnerships across the bloc. [5] If the thresholds stay as-is, expect euro stablecoin usage to remain mostly exchange-native, while institutional settlement keeps routing around the EU rulebook, or simply does not happen at scale.

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#stablecoins#Crypto compliance#EU regulation#European Commission#USDC#Circle#MiCA#EURC#Market Integration Package#E-money tokens