It is no stretch to acknowledge that stablecoins have added fuel to the excitement around cryptocurrencies as financial tools. They are the most direct link between the crypto community and the world of traditional finance since most stablecoins are linked (or “pegged”) to fiat currencies. In fact, the most popular stablecoins are blockchain-based tokens, often on Ethereum, which track the price of either the US dollar or the euro. Examples include Circle’s USDC and EURC, Tether’s USDT, and MakerDAO’s DAI.
EURS is a stablecoin pegged to the euro, so the value of 1 EURS is tied to 1 euro. STASIS, a stablecoin issuer based in Malta, supports 1:1 conversion between EURS and EURS by backing the tokens it issues with an equivalent amount of traditional financial assets.
How was STASIS Euro developed?
STASIS euro was launched on Ethereum in 2018 by a company called STSS Limited, more commonly called STASIS. The founder and CEO of the project is named Gregory Klumov, a serial investor and investment advisor. STASIS was his first entrepreneurial venture. Early in its life, STASIS claimed several stakeholders, including a UK payment institution and brokerage companies across the world.
Having humble beginnings in 2018, STASIS claims EURS was the first euro stablecoin. In 2020, STASIS announced a new wallet that offered traditional financial institutions novel access to cryptocurrencies. In 2021, the EURS token saw significant gains in market capitalization when more institutional investors were reportedly showing interest in the space and the economic recovery from the pandemic was in full swing.
Between 2021 and 2022, EURS launched on blockchains other than Ethereum (including Polygon, Algorand, and Ripple), and a second version of the token (EURS v2.0) was launched. Per the company’s announcement, the cost of transactions was expected to be reduced by 20-35% with the improved smart contract code. By 2023, more than 5.5 billion euro of value had been transferred on-chain using EURS.
Over the years, STASIS has partnered with exchanges, other crypto wallet providers, crypto custodians, and other entities in the space to integrate its stablecoin throughout the community.
How does STASIS Euro work?
EURS is a traditional cash collateralized stablecoin backed by EUR bank deposits. STASIS allows users to buy EURS on its website through traditional bank payment rails SEPA or SWIFT, as well as through credit card issuers. As users deposit funds, the company can then mint EURS tokens on a 1:1 basis (minus a fee) worth an equivalent amount of money. These tokens are usable throughout the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
As a centralized issuer of a stablecoin, STASIS provides multiple forms of proof that it can truly back all EURS in circulation. This is most commonly called Proof of Reserves (PoR). The company releases a daily statement of its assets and undergoes quarterly verifications and annual audits by the auditing firm BDO Malta. These reports are published on its website.
How is the EURS token used?
EURS primarily exists as an Ethereum-based token that can be used across crypto applications for decentralized finance (DeFi) or storing and transferring value between parties. Because of its compliance to the ERC-20 token standard, it can be used like any other token on Ethereum. Though many use fiat-pegged stablecoins as a way to trade cryptocurrencies against traditional fiat currencies on centralized or decentralized exchanges, this is not necessarily their only use.
Historically, most (> 90%) of EURS has been housed on the Ethereum mainnet. However, some EURS can be found on Polygon, Arbitrum, Algorand, and other blockchains.
Despite having a market capitalization of around 30 million euro through 2020, the popularity of EURS skyrocketed throughout 2021, and the total supply of STASIS’ stablecoin reached about 124 million euro by early 2022.
Conclusion
- STASIS Euro (EURS) is an Ethereum-based cash collateralized stablecoin pegged to the euro fiat currency.
- The EURS token is issued by STSS (Malta) Limited, also known as STASIS. The company holds assets in reserve to back all tokens it issues, and it publishes regular, public updates as Proof of Reserves.