Europe had first-mover advantage with stablecoins.
Then killed stablecoins with regulatory madness:
- No yield
- €200M/day issuance cap
- 60% reserves stuck in weak EU banks
Outcome?
€ stablecoins = $500 million
USD stablecoins = $265 billion
That’s 500x difference!
Tether exited EU.
Circle pivoted to USDC.
No one wants to build on broken rails.
Now ECB wants to “tokenize” Digital Euro on-chain.
Digital Euro is a CBDC…
But ECB wants to make Digital Euro a stablecoin.
Public chains = loss of control.
MiCA was meant to stop DeFi.
Now regulators are begging for composability.
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While Europe is fighting with itself:
1. 🇺🇸 US passed the GENIUS Act. USDT + USDC cleared $2 trillion/month, backed by Treasuries.
2. 🇦🇪 UAE licensed AED stablecoins, approved Ripple’s RLUSD, and pilots its CBDC.
🌏 Hong Kong opens HKD and CNH rails for cross-border trade.
I explain:
- US: Clear rules, deepest liquidity, yield-bearing scale
- UAE & Hong Kong: Fast-track licenses, composable rails, growing adoption
- EU: Legal backtracking, fragmented liquidity, stuck in debate
I warned months ago:
- MiCA kills stablecoin liquidity
- Euro stablecoins won’t scale
- Tether will never comply with MiCA
ECB is now scrambling for Plan C.
Don’t build on political experiments.
Build where capital flows.
US and UAE are forming new axis of crypto liquidity.
Europe already gave up its lead.
Europe doesn’t know what to do next.
👇
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