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Hello fintech friends,
Revolut has announced a euro-pegged stablecoin, EURR. In fact, its crypto blog first published the news a few weeks ago, on 8 August. But the PR push only started today, with various news sites reporting that Revolut has begun rolling out EURR in selected markets.
Initially available in Portugal, Denmark and Poland, with other markets to follow, the company announced that “EURR provides customers with an on-chain option for moving between fiat, crypto, external wallets, and supported blockchain networks”. The mention of external wallets shows that Revolut sees EURR as a coin that can exist both within the Revolut ecosystem and outside of it.
In terms of regulation, under MiCA (the EU’s crypto regulation), EURR is classed as an e-money token (EMT) and is redeemable at par value, 1:1 with the euro. At the same time, EURR is not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme in the same way that fiat euros held in a bank account are. This is the norm in crypto, but the fact that EURR, under MiCA, gives holders a claim on assets held by the stablecoin issuer — in this case, Stripe-owned Bridge — while not being part of a deposit guarantee scheme is something consumers will have to understand and get used to.
The white paper mentions that Bridge may put EURR reserves — euros or euro-denominated assets — into “interest-bearing accounts or other yield-generating instruments”, although that yield does not flow back to EURR holders. It’s not clear whether the yield Bridge generates is shared with Revolut in any way, but it may form part of the overall commercial model here.
Dealing with infrastructure such as stablecoin issuance is complex. Revolut has the heft to build stablecoin infrastructure in-house if it wanted to, yet in this case it is opting to work with Bridge. In many ways, this makes sense. Bridge has developed a well-established stablecoin-infrastructure-as-a-service model, while Revolut has distribution like few others.
It’ll be interesting to see how they position EURR, and the take up that follows. In essence, the ability to move between fiat and crypto and to essentially on-ramp and off-ramp within Revolut’s ecosystem will be a proof point of the utility of stablecoins at scale in Europe.
Please find another week of fintech news below!
— Matt Jones
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The Rundown
🏦 M&A
Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter for around $7.5bn, its largest acquisition to date. The acquisition gives the payments giant a major position in AI infrastructure routing.
🚀 Product Launches
Starling has launched an AI assistant for business customers, which can execute banking tasks including setting aside money for tax, as well as flagging potential invoice fraud and providing personalised financial insights.
Standard Chartered and HSBC completed the first live tokenised-deposit transaction on Swift’s blockchain ledger.
TransUnion is launching a new UK credit score, moving from a 710-point to a 999-point scale and incorporating a broader range of financial behaviours.
SoftPOS provider Rubean added Spain’s Bizum as a payment method, allowing merchants to accept Bizum through its SoftPOS offering.
Ozone API launched cVRP infrastructure for UK banks and PSPs outside the CMA9.
💸 Fundraises
Ingenico secured a €150m investment led by PIMCO, with GoldenTree Asset Management also participating. The funding will help the company reset its capital structure.
London-based Itoflow raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding led by Balderton Capital, alongside angel investors including Cleo founder Barney Hussey-Yeo.
Newcastle-based Noggin HQ raised £2.3m in a seed round led by Blackfinch Ventures, with Oxford Capital and Bethnal Green Ventures also participating.
Neno raised €6.6m in a seed round led by AlleyCorp, with participation from Motive Partners and Firstminute Capital, to build an AI-native platform combining accounting, tax, and other financial services for European SMEs.
🏛️ Policy & Regulation
According to an investigation in the Guardian, UK post offices have become a significant vulnerability in the country’s anti-money-laundering system.
Tether says KPMG completed an audit of the reserves backing USDT, including verification of its gold holdings, delivering the Big Four audit the stablecoin issuer has promised for years.
Europe risks losing the digital-currency race to dollar stablecoins, argues Bloomberg — is the digital euro faces is moving too slowly?
CoinDesk reported that crypto companies are asking leading AI labs for access to more powerful cybersecurity models, arguing that defenders need the same advanced AI capabilities increasingly available to attackers.
🗂️ Other News
Klarna shares plunged almost 25% after its latest results, as weaker-than-expected 2026 full year guidance overshadowed strong Q2 results.
Annual stablecoin card spending could reach $50bn by 2028, according to RedotPay, around four times current levels.
Olas has launched Pearl Connect, allowing Claude users to research prediction markets and prepare trades on Polymarket and Omen without leaving their AI session.
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Fun Stuff
Unscramble this payments term: RHECGBAKCA
Thanks everyone for reading. Have a great day and see you next week.
Oh, and the answer for the above scramble: CHARGEBACK
