Bank of Spain Greenlights Euro-Backed Stablecoin Token Pilot Program

The Bank of Spain has given approval for the launch of a pilot program involving the issuance and usage of euro-pegged stablecoins. The program, which MONEI, a fintech institution, is launching, will allow users to issue digital euros with fiat deposits in order to experiment with these in payment applications, increasing their transparency.

Europe is becoming a hotspot for stablecoins and CBDC (central bank digital currency) experimentation. On Jan. 19, the Bank of Spain greenlighted a pilot program that involves the issuance of euro-pegged digital tokens. The project, which is being spearheaded by MONEI, a regulated fintech payments company, will allow users to issue their own euro stablecoins for different purposes.

Using Ethereum and Polygon blockchain technology, the eurm token will be issued with deposits coming from users, with each token being backed by real euros. The test, inscribed as part of the actions in the financial Sandbox of the bank of Sain, only allows the issuance of ten eurm maximum by each user registered in MONEI’s platform.

The test encompasses the issuance of up to 570 million eurm because Spain has 57 million phone lines subscribed. These funds will be held in two accounts in two financial institutions, BBVA and Caixabank, managed by MONEI.

MONEI is profiling its digital euro stablecoin as part of its modernization take on the payments in the Eurozone, increasing the speed of payments while cutting operational costs linked to them. On this, MONEI CEO and founder Alex Saiz Verdaguer stated:

The future of payments is digital. This is our chance to show the rest of Europe and the world that we are at the forefront. Eurm is the ultimate pan-European solution that will allow citizens and businesses on the continent to send and receive money instantly.

MONEI aims for this stablecoin project to be approved by regulators after this test, to tackle automatic and periodic payments that would benefit from programmable fiat equivalent money. As an example, a company could program payments to providers based on the sales executed on any given day, or allow workers to program their allowance payments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis automatically.

This project is a private-led initiative and has no relationship with the digital euro initiative led by the European Central Bank, which is currently still in its investigative phases to decide if it will be issued.

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