Circle Attains EMI License From France, Achieves MiCA Compliance

Circle has attained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the French banking authority, thereby achieving compliance with the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework.

With this license from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), Circle’s French entity is now issuing USDC and EURC stablecoins in compliance with MiCA’s regulatory obligations for stablecoins or eMoney tokens, the company said in a Monday (July 1) press release.

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO at Circle, said in the release that this achievement is “a huge milestone in bringing digital currency into mainstream scale and acceptance.”

“By working closely with French and EU regulators, we are now able to offer both USDC and EURC as fully compliant dollar and euro stablecoins to the European market, unlocking the enormous potential of digital assets to transform finance and commerce,” Allaire said.

Having attained compliance with MiCA, Circle Mint France is offering business customers throughout the European market access to minting and redeeming USDC and EURC, according to the release.

“Today’s announcement further reinforces our commitment to building a more inclusive, compliant future for internet finance,” Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, said in the release.

Circle said in December, when it was named a digital asset service provider (DASP) in France, that its goal was to have its European operations brought under comprehensive EU oversight with both a full DASP and EMI license under the standards of the ACPR, while bringing its products and services into compliance with MiCA rules.

With MiCA, the EU became one of the first jurisdictions in the world to introduce a comprehensive set of rules surrounding crypto assets and their use, PYMNTS reported in April 2023, when EU lawmakers adopted the crypto licensing framework.

As MiCA went into effect at the end of June, complying with that framework has been top of mind for stablecoin issuers, custodial firms, trading exchanges, crypto-asset advising firms and crypto-portfolio managers.

Allaire said in January that countries around the world were quickly adopting crypto regulations, with other governments regulating dollar-digital currencies before the United States.