From ledgerinsights

Three organizations based in the Netherlands are collaborating on the issuance of a MiCAR compliant euro stablecoin, EURQ. Technically, it’s an ‘electronic money token’ (EMT). Stablecoin firm Quantoz Payments is partnering EU multilateral trading facility NPEX and its blockchain partner Dusk, aiming to support regulated finance on the Dusk blockchain. EURQ already exists on the Ethereum blockchain with a €5 million market capitalization and 27 holders.

“A regulated, compliant, digital euro is a vital piece of the equation to build an on-chain stock exchange, and we are confident this groundbreaking partnership will benefit not only the three parties involved, but also users and finance more broadly,” said Mark van der Plas, NPEX CEO.

NPEX is regulated in the Netherlands as a multilateral trading facility and also has a crowdfunding license. Hence, it supports the issuance of securities by SMEs and provides a marketplace. Since its founding in 2020 it has helped companies raise €192 million in growth capital.

Last March NPEX announced a partnership to create a DLT-based stock exchange with Dusk, which is a permissionless blockchain dedicated to tokenization. The aim was to register under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, which allows an exchange like NPEX to additionally take on the tasks of a central securities depository (CSD) and relaxes a few other laws.

Just two organizations have been approved for the DLT Pilot Regime so far, 21X in Germany and Czechia’s Prague CSD.

Stablecoin issuer Quantoz Payments

Meanwhile, last year Tether invested in the stablecoin startup which is regulated as an e-money institution by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). As part of the deal it agreed to adopt Tether’s s Hadron tokenization infrastructure. Quantoz Payments has two other stablecoins, another euro one on Algorand (EURD) and a dollar one on Ethereum (USDQ) with a market capitalization of $11 million.

Quantoz Payments is part of a group that also has its NEXUS tokenization platform that supports compliant token issuance, not just for stablecoins.

The new CEO of Quantoz Payments is Arnoud Star Busmann who has a long track record in enterprise blockchain, commodities and banking. He founded listed mining supply chain firm Minehub, which uses blockchain. Plus, he was involved with VAKT, the institutional energy commodities platform based on blockchain as part of his nine year stint leading innovation for commodities at ABN Amro.