Membrane Finance, the Finnish Electronic Money Institution, has been acquired by Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure platform.
The blockchain platform will become a wholly licensed EMI in Finland and the EU due to the acquisition of Membrane Finance, which holds a Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority license. Thirty European nations acknowledge that license. In a statement, Walter Hessert, Paxos’ chief of strategy, stated:
“Stablecoins are becoming increasingly more prevalent throughout the market as more use cases emerge for everyday users. […] With Membrane, we expect to extend our reach to EU customers looking to benefit from stablecoins.”
The EUROe and eUSD stablecoins are issued by Membrane Finance. The EUROe was introduced in February 2023, but no significant immediate demand existed. Stasis, Circle, Tether, and Celo are issuers of euro-pegged stablecoins.
Other tokens share the eUSD designation. Membrane Finance’s eUSD is one of the least active.
Dollar-pegged and gold tokens were available at Paxos
The blockchain platform issues the Pax Dollar (USDP) and is subject to the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Financial Services. Furthermore, in June, Paxos International implemented the Lift Dollar (USDL) stablecoin, which is yield-bearing, by the Abu Dhabi Global Market regulations. On November 1, the blockchain platform branch in Singapore initiated the Global Dollar (USDG) issuance in collaboration with DBS Bank, with the Singapore Monetary Authority’s approval.
In November, a consortium of traditional and crypto finance companies, such as Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Paxos, was established to “accelerate and reward global stablecoin adoption.” It is designed explicitly with USDG in mind.
The blockchain platform also generates a cryptocurrency (PAXG) collateralized by gold that it maintains in its inventory.
The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation governs the European stablecoin market. The provisions regarding stablecoins were implemented on July 1.
Dutch fintech Quantoz issued MiCA-compliant US dollar- (USDQ) and euro-pegged (EURQ) stablecoins one day before Paxos announced its Membrane Finance acquisition. These stablecoins were backed by Tether, Kraken, and Fabric Ventures and received the Dutch central bank’s sanction.