Solana tops euro‑stablecoin issuances: The Circle effect behind the numbers

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Taken in isolation, the weekly ranking gives Solana a clear winner. Its additional $22 million exceeds the cumulative progress of other blockchains tracked by Token Terminal. But an increase in supply recorded on a channel does not necessarily reflect an equivalent influx of usable capital.

On October 23, Circle announced a new EURC pre-issuance address on Solana, intended to accompany Gateway's stablecoin support. The issuer explains that these tokens exist on the blockchain, but remain excluded from its calculation of the circulating supply until they are made available to users.

The data published by Solana Compass makes it possible to measure the operation. The address concerned held approximately 20 million EURC, or nearly $22.4 million at the rate used on October 24. The total supply recorded on Solana had increased from around 105 million to 125 million EURC on October 23.

The amount and timing therefore correspond to the reported weekly increase. This suggests that pre-issuance explains most of the movement, rather than a sudden surge in demand. Circle does not, however, specify the pre-issued amount in its own press release.

Concretely, when Gateway delivers EURC on Solana, the tokens leave this technical reserve to join the user's wallet. The circulating supply then increases, without requiring a further increase in the total number of tokens already created.

This distinction does not remove its interest in the development of infrastructure on Solana. Gateway facilitates the use of EURC across multiple blockchains, while the network also hosts EUR CoinVertible from Société Générale-FORGE and EURAU from AllUnity.

Low transaction fees are an advantage for cross-currency payments and exchanges. However, the presence of issuers and services is not enough to measure activity: the volumes actually transferred, available liquidity and uses provide additional information.

Segment-wide, Ethereum maintains the top spot in total inventory. The estimates relayed place the euro stablecoin market between 835 and 916 million dollars, with differences linked to the scope and method of accounting. It thus remains in a very small minority compared to dollar-backed tokens.

The week therefore mainly marks a development of the EURC infrastructure on Solana. To measure its adoption, the decisive figure is the quantity of tokens actually put into circulation and used, rather than that prepared in a technical address. Circle’s EURC, the future big one in Europe?

With a background in literature and languages, I like to combine rigorous analysis with a taste for ideas to decipher the major economic and (geo)political issues linked to cryptocurrencies. Since 2021, I have been writing for Journal du Coin where I focus on subjects such as Bitcoin, MNBC, the tokenization of RWA and more broadly the strategic mutations of Web3. A passionate reader, curious about the world and the power relationships that structure it, I strive to make these themes accessible to all, with particular attention to projects designed for the general public.

Machine-translated from French