European stablecoin issuer Qivalis sees transformation of global trade finance

Qivalis, a euro-pegged stablecoin issuer, says its customers and counterparties are shifting large parts of the trade finance supply chain onto stablecoins. CEO Jan-Oliver Sell told reporters that the firm has onboarded 37 European banks over the last year and expanded its headcount from a single employee to roughly 40 staffers as demand for tokenised euro liquidity grows. Sell described concrete use cases spanning regions including Asia, Latin America and Africa, where trade finance funds and commodity traders are increasingly operating their entire supply chains on stablecoins without routinely converting back to fiat. He recounted an example of a supplier in East Africa settling with a buyer in Kazakhstan entirely in stablecoins, a workflow that, according to Qivalis, allows collateral to move in minutes rather than days and alters business models that previously depended on slower fiat rails. Qivalis is also moving toward formal regulation: the company is reportedly close to obtaining an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and aims to launch a regulated euro stablecoin by the end of the year. Sell contrasted the present moment with earlier blockchain efforts that focused on digitising paperwork for instruments such as letters of credit but lacked an on-chain cash leg; he said liquid stablecoins now provide that missing payment component. On market structure, Sell noted that USD-pegged tokens currently dominate, led by issuers such as Tether and Circle, but argued Europe and other currency areas will favour local-pegged tokens. He predicted a ‘‘multi-stablecoin’’ environment where regional currency-pegged tokens are used similarly to existing fiat flows. Sell also pointed to regulatory timing differences, saying delays in U.S. legislation give Europe some runway under frameworks like MiCA, and observed it took Qivalis about three and a half years to reach its current stage — implying other bank-led stablecoin consortia may face longer timelines to go live.