Crédit Agricole Launches EURXT, a Euro-Pegged Stablecoin

Crédit Agricole has launched EURXT, a euro-pegged stablecoin, with 20 million tokens fully backed by euro reserves.

Crédit Agricole, France's second-largest bank by assets, has entered the stablecoin market with its newly launched EURO eXchange Token (EURXT). This euro-pegged stablecoin, compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, aims to compete with existing stablecoins such as Société Générale's EURCV and Circle's EURC.

Initially, 20 million EURXT tokens have been issued, each backed 1:1 by euro reserves at Caceis Bank, which is responsible for the token's issuance. This stablecoin is already being utilized for transactions, including investments in a tokenized money market fund managed by Amundi, a significant asset manager in Europe.

As the stablecoin market expands, the euro stablecoin segment has seen rapid growth since the implementation of MiCA regulations a year ago, with market capitalization more than doubling in that timeframe. Despite this growth, the euro stablecoin market still represents only 0.5% of the overall token market, which is dominated by U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins like Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC.

Crédit Agricole's introduction of EURXT is part of its broader ACT 2028 initiative, which seeks to enhance its participation in the evolving landscape of tokenized finance. The launch comes at a time when a consortium of 37 European banks, known as Qivalis, is also preparing to release its own stablecoin later this year, intensifying competition in this burgeoning sector.