Europe risks losing control of its financial future against the US dollar unless it brings the euro to the blockchain rails, according to Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO of bank-backed stablecoin project Qivalis.
The warning reflects growing concern among European banks and policymakers that the next phase of global finance, increasingly built on blockchain infrastructure, is being overwhelmingly dominated by dollar-pegged stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
“If we don’t have a highly liquid on-chain euro, then the only alternative is the US dollar,” Sell told CoinDesk. “That is a real risk for Europe’s financial and digital sovereignty.”
Stablecoins are no longer just cryptocurrencies. They are currently at the center of global financial systems, with a market capitalization of about $314 billion, but could rise to between $800 billion and $1.15 trillion over the next five years, according to a recent estimate by Jeffries.
In traditional finance, the euro accounts for about 20% to 25% of global activity, making it the world’s second-largest reserve currency, Sell said. Onchain, however, its presence is almost non-existent.
“In the blockchain space, the euro represents about 0.2% of transactions,” Sell said. “That’s a big disconnect.”
Top 12 EU Banks Competing for Stablecoin Dominance
Qivalis, backed by a consortium of 12 large European banks including ING, UniCredit and BBVA, is attempting to close that gap by issuing a MiCA-compatible euro stablecoin.
The project aims to launch as soon as regulatory approval is obtained, with Sell targeting the second half of the year, depending on licensing deadlines with the Dutch central bank.
Sell said the consortium aims to build the “default” euro-denominated token for global crypto markets, effectively creating a European alternative to the dominant dollar stablecoins.
“We want to be the leading issuer of euro stablecoins globally,” he said. In essence, Qivalis is positioning itself as an infrastructure rather than simply a token. “We are building the interface between blockchain and the euro,” Sell said. “It has to be available wherever the use cases are.”
Qivalis is designed to address a key issue that has held back euro stablecoins until now: fragmentation.
“A couple of banks trying to issue their own currencies just fragment the space further,” Sell said. “Bringing institutions together creates the distribution and liquidity needed to make them usable.”
It is not the ECB’s digital euro
The project comes as the European Central Bank (ECB) continues to work on a digital euro that it aims to launch no earlier than 2029, but Sell said the two efforts are fundamentally different.
ECB President Christine Lagarde recently said the bank had finalized its part of the central bank’s digital euro and it was now up to political institutions to act. The project, which aims to create a public digital payment method, is being reviewed by the European Council and the European Parliament.
Qivalis will issue a private stablecoin regulated by MiCA, while the ECB plans are based on a centralized infrastructure.
“We don’t see it as competition,” Sell said. “It is an improvement of the same financial set.”
He described a “monetary stack” in which central bank money sits in centralized systems, while blockchain-based use cases such as cross-border payments and on-chain settlement require a native euro asset on public networks.
“At the moment, if you want to operate on-chain, you are effectively forced to use dollars,” he said.
A race against the dominance of the dollar
The urgency behind the project is tied to the speed with which financial activity is shifting towards blockchain-based systems, from cryptocurrency trading to global payments and decentralized finance.
Qivalis is betting that a regulated, bank-backed approach can compete with existing dollar stablecoins by generating liquidity and integrating across exchanges, custodians and DeFi platforms.
“We’re looking to build that whole ecosystem around the euro chain,” Sell said.
Part of the challenge is not just issuing the token, but creating demand in markets where dollar stablecoins are already deeply entrenched.
Sell pointed to currency risk as one reason why euro-denominated alternatives could gain traction.
“If you are a European user earning returns in dollars, you are also exposed to currency risk,” he said, noting that exchange rate movements can offset returns.
A question of financial sovereignty
As more financial activity moves onto blockchain rails, the absence of a widely adopted euro stablecoin could leave Europe structurally dependent on dollar-based infrastructure.
“One of the risks is that as more activity moves up the chain, if there are no usable euros, then everything will happen in dollars,” he said.
“We are looking to build a cornerstone of European digital autonomy. If we don’t have it, we will face dollarization.”
The goal, he added, is not to directly replace the dollar, but to ensure that the euro remains competitive in a rapidly evolving financial system.
“This is about returning the euro to its place as the world’s second reserve currency in this space as well,” Sell said. “This is about putting the financial future back into our hands as Europeans.”
