Stablecoins and MiCA: What the EU Rules Mean for Business Payments

Why stablecoins are becoming a topic for small businesses

If you sell to customers outside the euro area, you know the problem: international transfers take time, cost fees, and pass through several banks. Stablecoins promise a shortcut. A payment can arrive around the clock within minutes, and its value does not fluctuate as bitcoin's does. At the same time, one hears of issuers with unclear reserves and of tokens that have lost their peg.

This piece asks: what does the European MiCA regulation provide for stablecoins, and what does that mean for a business that wants to accept or make payments in stablecoins? To answer it, we first clarify the terms, then the state of the rules, then a model for the central risk, two perspectives on MiCA's effect, and finally a check for your own business. Whether crypto as a means of payment is worthwhile at all is covered in Crypto as a means of payment.

A stablecoin is as stable as its issuer's promise. MiCA makes that promise verifiable, but not unnecessary.

What are stablecoins, and how does MiCA classify them?

A stablecoin is a crypto-asset whose value is pegged to a reference, usually a currency such as the euro or US dollar. The issuer promises to take the token back at that value at any time and holds reserves for this, such as bank balances or short-term government bonds. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCA for short, officially Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, distinguishes two types.

For business payments, e-money tokens are almost the only relevant type. Polasik, Widawski, Keler, and Marella (2025) examined their legal classification. Under MiCA, e-money tokens count as funds in the sense of payments law and closely resemble classic e-money, such as the balance on a prepaid card. They differ from it in the blockchain on which they run and are therefore both e-money and crypto-assets. Another finding matters for businesses: issuing an e-money token does not create a separate payment system under EU law.

In a legal overview, Annunziata (2025) describes MiCA as the first uniform rulebook for crypto markets across a group of several states. The regulation borrows concepts from existing financial law, for stablecoins mainly from the supervision of banks and e-money institutions. He sees the delineation of categories as a weakness that can lead to uncertainty in individual cases.

Which rules apply to e-money tokens?

For a business that accepts a euro or dollar stablecoin, the rights against the issuer matter most. MiCA sets some firm rules for e-money tokens.

• Authorization: Only credit institutions and e-money institutions authorized in the EU may offer e-money tokens to the public.
• Redemption at par: Holders have the right at any time to redeem their tokens with the issuer at par value in the underlying currency.
• No interest: Issuers and service providers may not grant interest for holding e-money tokens.
• Reserves: Funds received must be invested safely, a fixed portion of them as deposits with banks.
• Supervision: For particularly large tokens classified as significant, the European Banking Authority (EBA) takes on additional supervisory tasks.

1. June 30, 2024

   The rules for e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens apply.

2. December 30, 2024

   The remaining rules apply, including the authorization requirement for crypto-asset service providers such as trading platforms and custodians. Existing providers may continue temporarily, depending on the member state.

3. July 1, 2026

   The longest possible transitional periods end. Anyone offering crypto-asset services in the EU has since generally needed MiCA authorization.

In Germany, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is responsible. In practice this means for a business: a service provider through which it accepts or exchanges stablecoins must now have MiCA authorization, and the token itself must come from an authorized issuer if it is offered to the public in the EU.

The central risk: what happens when everyone wants to redeem at once?

The most important model for stablecoins comes from banking research. Diamond and Dybvig (1983) described why a bank run can occur. A bank promises to pay out deposits at any time but has invested part of the money long-term. As long as only a few withdraw, this works. If many fear the bank cannot serve everyone, it becomes rational for each individual to withdraw first. The fear then fulfills itself.

A stablecoin faces the same problem. Its promise is redemption at par. If holders doubt that the reserves suffice or are available quickly enough, many want to redeem at the same time. An everyday analogy makes this tangible: a coat-check ticket is only worth as much as the confidence that a coat really hangs behind the counter. As long as everyone believes this, nobody collects their coat early.

MiCA's rules start precisely here. The obligation to hold safe reserves, the guaranteed right of redemption, and supervision of issuers are meant to prevent doubts about backing from arising in the first place. The interest ban has a second purpose: it is meant to prevent stablecoins from competing with bank deposits and thereby drawing money out of the banking system. How much the use of a means of payment depends on trust is also shown by the case study El Salvador and bitcoin.

How large is the market for euro stablecoins?

The global stablecoin market is dominated by US dollar tokens. Euro stablecoins under MiCA have grown significantly since the rules took effect but remain very small by comparison. The payment service provider Decta analyzed eight MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins that were being issued and traded continuously.

The volume more than doubled within a year. Measured against the dollar stablecoin market, which the data platform CoinGecko puts at around 300 billion US dollars, the eight euro tokens correspond to only about 0.22 percent. Other analyses using broader definitions arrive at somewhat higher figures. This changes little about the order of magnitude.

For a business in the euro area, one thing follows above all: if you accept stablecoins, in practice you will often deal with dollar tokens. That adds a currency risk to the issuer risk. How businesses deal with exchange rate fluctuations in international trade is described in Currency risks in exporting.

Protection or brake? Two perspectives on MiCA

Whether MiCA's strict rules help or hurt stablecoins in Europe is judged differently. Both perspectives can be justified.

The protection perspective is supported by the fact that MiCA arose from experience with the collapse of unbacked tokens. The brake perspective is supported by the fact that payments continue to take place mainly in dollar tokens. Polasik and coauthors (2025) consider it too early to judge MiCA's effect on innovation in European payments, because the rules have applied only briefly. I consider this restraint appropriate.

For a small business, the protection perspective is the more relevant one. If you accept payments, you need above all certainty that you can later exchange the token for euros. That is exactly what MiCA regulates. Whether Europe builds a strong stablecoin industry of its own alongside is a question of industrial policy that affects the individual business only secondarily. The Eurosystem is planning a public alternative for digital payments in euros with the digital euro.

The stablecoin profile: what to check before accepting

Whether accepting crypto-assets makes sense for a business at all is answered by the four-question filter in Crypto as a means of payment. If the answer is positive, a second step helps, which I call the stablecoin profile. It checks a specific token and a specific service provider before any money flows.

• Issuer: is it authorized in the EU as a credit institution or e-money institution and listed in the supervisor's register?
• Type and currency: is it an e-money token, and in which currency? For dollar tokens: how do you hedge the currency risk?
• Redemption: exactly how do you redeem the token for euros with the issuer or via your service provider, and what does it cost?
• Service provider: does the provider through which you accept and exchange have MiCA authorization?
• Custody: who holds the tokens between receipt of payment and exchange, and for how long?
• Accounting and tax: has your tax advisor confirmed how the payments are to be booked?

The figures in this worked example are freely chosen and depend heavily on provider, country, and amount. They mainly show that a stablecoin's advantage lies in speed and reach rather than cost, and that it shrinks as soon as a dollar token is held for longer. What to consider on the balance sheet when holding crypto-assets is described in Bitcoin on the balance sheet.

What you can do this week

• Check whether customers or suppliers outside the euro area have asked about payments in stablecoins.
• Compile the costs and duration of your international payments over the past twelve months.
• If a test is an option: find a service provider with MiCA authorization and check its authorization in the register.
• Fill in the stablecoin profile for the token in question.
• Clarify with your tax advisor how incoming stablecoin payments are to be booked.

Conclusion: what do MiCA and stablecoins mean for business payments?

We set out to ask
MiCA provides for stablecoins and what that means for a business. MiCA turns a stablecoin's promise into a verifiable right: anyone holding an e-money token in the EU can redeem it at any time at par value with an authorized and supervised issuer. Since July 2026, this has applied without transitional periods to the service providers through which businesses process such payments as well.

Stablecoins have thus become safer for businesses, but not risk-free. The risk of a run remains at its core, dollar tokens add currency risk, and the market for euro tokens is still small. For most small businesses, stablecoins are therefore a tool for certain international transactions, not a replacement for the bank account. If you use them, don't watch the price; watch the issuer.