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Finextra is convening a webinar with payments and digital-asset industry speakers to discuss whether Europe is ready to adopt stablecoins and what role they could play alongside the digital euro. The source says stablecoins are being used or considered for cross-border payments, treasury management and payouts, but it does not provide Europe-specific adoption figures or establish how widespread those uses are.
Finextra has announced a webinar examining Europe’s readiness for stablecoins, bringing together payments and digital-asset specialists to discuss business uses, regulation and the tokens’ place alongside the European Central Bank’s digital euro project. The event comes as cross-border payments, treasury management and payouts are described as immediate areas of interest, while the supplied material does not establish how extensively European businesses already use stablecoins.
The webinar, hosted by Finextra in association with Visa Direct, is framed around a strategic question: how should Europe respond as the United States advances a more stablecoin-focused approach while the EU continues work on a digital euro? The discussion is also set to address which companies and institutions could help build a stablecoin ecosystem and whether wider adoption would create clear winners or losers.
Finextra identifies account funding and wallet payouts as immediate use cases and says financial institutions are focusing on cross-border payments and treasury management as well. Stablecoins can move value on blockchain networks, and the report points to their real-time potential as a difference from traditional payment rails. It does not, however, provide case studies or quantify the use of these services by European firms.
The listed speakers are Tim Moncrieff of Visa Payments and Currencycloud, Muneeb Shah of EY, and Nikola Plecas of Fireblocks. Finextra contributor Scott Hamilton is named as moderator. The source presents the session as a discussion of developments and possible applications; it does not report a new European policy decision or a commitment by the speakers’ organisations to adopt a particular stablecoin.
Payments and Treasury Are the Test
The debate matters because stablecoins could give businesses another way to move funds across borders, manage liquidity and pay customers or partners. If transactions can be settled more quickly than through existing arrangements, companies may find them useful for specific payment flows. Those potential benefits are use-case questions, not proof of broad European adoption; the source offers no data on savings, transaction volumes in Europe or the number of participating businesses.
The choice also has a wider currency and infrastructure dimension. Finextra says about 98% of stablecoins are denominated in US dollars, making the current market heavily dollar-focused. That figure raises questions about the currency businesses would use for digital payments and the role European institutions might play. It does not, by itself, show that stablecoins are displacing euro payments or establish what the eventual impact on European financial institutions would be.
For readers, the practical issue is whether stablecoins will remain a tool used in particular business transactions or become a more prominent part of mainstream payments. The answer depends on factors the webinar is set to examine, including regulation, access, trust, interoperability and how private tokens compare with public digital-money projects.
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Digital Euro and Dollar-Led Tokens
Europe’s policy discussion is unfolding alongside the ECB’s work on a digital euro. Finextra says the project is heading toward a pilot in 2027. A digital euro would be a central-bank digital currency project, while stablecoins are privately issued digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value, commonly against a currency. They are different approaches to digital money, and the source does not say that one is intended to replace the other.
The report also links rising stablecoin attention to the announcement of the US GENIUS Act over the preceding 12 months, saying that regulatory momentum helped move the subject into mainstream discussion. It cites McKinsey as projecting annual stablecoin payment volume of about $390 billion, based on data from December 2025. That is a global figure as presented in the source, not a measure of European payments, and the supplied material does not provide the methodology or a comparison baseline.
Finextra further reports that Open Standard, described as an independent company with more than 140 firms among its participants, announced the launch of Open USD in June 2026. The named participants include Visa, US Bank, Google and Coinbase. The source characterises the initiative as an effort toward a stablecoin not owned by a single player, but provides no details here on its circulation, governance arrangements or use in Europe.
“The volume of actual stablecoin payments made annually now [is] coming up to $390 billion, based on data from December 2025.”
— Finextra, citing McKinsey
European Adoption Data Is Missing
The announcement does not say when the webinar will take place, identify its full panel beyond the named speakers, or report conclusions from the discussion. It also gives no figures showing how many European companies use stablecoins, which payment corridors are active, or what transaction volumes and cost effects have been measured. The stated use cases should therefore be read as areas of interest, not evidence that adoption is widespread.
Several broader points are also unresolved in the supplied material: how European regulation will apply to particular stablecoins, whether businesses will choose euro-denominated options, and how private tokens might coexist with the digital euro. Finextra’s dollar-denomination figure and McKinsey-attributed payment-volume estimate are not accompanied here by a detailed methodology or a clear period for the 98% statistic. The source also does not establish whether Open USD is available for European business use.
Webinar to Examine Europe’s Options
Finextra says the webinar will bring together representatives from Visa, EY and Fireblocks, with Scott Hamilton moderating, to consider stablecoin use cases and Europe’s position in the digital-money race. The supplied announcement does not include a date or registration details beyond directing readers to the event listing.
For a clearer picture of readiness, subsequent reporting would need evidence beyond discussion topics: European transaction data, named business deployments, details of applicable regulatory requirements, and updates to the ECB’s digital euro timetable. Until those are available, the most firmly supported conclusion is that stablecoins are an active subject of industry debate, while the scale and direction of European adoption remain unestablished.
Key Questions
What is the news about stablecoins in Europe?
Finextra announced a webinar on Europe’s readiness for stablecoins. It will address business use cases, the regional digital-money strategy and how stablecoins relate to the digital euro project.
Which stablecoin uses are being discussed?
The source names cross-border payments, treasury management, account funding and wallet payouts. It does not provide evidence showing how common those uses are among European businesses.
How does the digital euro differ from a stablecoin?
The digital euro is an ECB project for a central-bank digital currency. Stablecoins are privately issued digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value. The source discusses both approaches but does not say one will replace the other.
Are stablecoins widely used by European businesses?
The supplied material does not give Europe-specific adoption figures or examples sufficient to establish how widespread business use is. It describes applications under discussion rather than documenting their scale.
What happens next?
The announced webinar is expected to explore the issues, but its date is not included in the source material. The ECB digital euro project is described as heading toward a 2027 pilot; further adoption data and policy details will be needed to assess Europe’s direction.
Source: finextra.com
