Qivalis has been granted authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). The company is now subject to ongoing supervision by DNB and, as an authorised EMI, is eligible to issue euro-denominated electronic money tokens (EMTs), the regulatory form its planned stablecoin will take.
Regulatory path to issuance
The authorisation meets a key regulatory condition for issuing the Qivalis EMT. The company plans to begin issuance in the coming months. Before then, it must meet the applicable requirements under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and publish the token’s white paper.
According to Qivalis, regulatory compliance has been part of the company’s architecture since the outset. With EMI status secured, its remaining steps towards launch now centre on MiCA obligations, not on the authorisation of the issuing entity itself.
Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO of Qivalis, framed the authorisation as a matter of European autonomy. The official argued that as financial activity moves on-chain, the rules and supervision governing that infrastructure become a strategic question for Europe. Qivalis holds that Europe should have a euro-denominated on-chain settlement asset issued under European law and subject to European regulatory standards. It describes the DNB decision as a step towards that objective.
This positioning places the project within a broader debate over which jurisdictions’ rules and supervisory standards will govern settlement assets used in on-chain financial activity.
Distribution model and governance
Qivalis will operate a B2B2X model, distributing its EMT through eligible counterparties. These include banks, exchanges, payment service providers, and market infrastructure participants. Under this structure, access to the token for the wider market is expected to run through regulated and institutional intermediaries.
Implications for the ecosystem
The consortium model brings together 37 banks from 15 countries behind a single supervised issuer, rather than individual institutions pursuing separate euro-denominated tokens. For the banks, exchanges, and payment service providers expected to act as distribution counterparties, the DNB authorisation provides a supervised issuing entity ahead of the token’s launch. The timing of issuance will depend on the completion of MiCA requirements and the publication of the white paper.
