Circle Executive: Most EU stablecoin issuers can't host their own tokens for clients

Comparing news, Patrick Hansen, Circle's senior director of EU strategy and policy, tweeted that out of about 23 authorized electronic currency token (EMT) issuers in the EU, only 9 have been approved to provide crypto asset services (CASP) at the same time. This means that only these 9 companies can provide escrow and transfer services for the stablecoins they issue, while the remaining 14 can only mint or destroy tokens directly to customer wallets and cannot hold or send stablecoins on behalf of customers. This greatly limits the range of services an issuer can provide.

Hansen said Circle has obtained the necessary CASP approvals through the MiCA Section 60 notification process to provide USDC and EURC related escrow or payment services to institutional clients. He was surprised that more EMT issuers had yet to take this step. Nine companies that currently provide some crypto asset services include Circle, Société Générale - Forge, CACEIS Bank, Banking Circle, Bridge, Fiat Republic, Newrails, Blue EMI, and Stable Mint.