Monerium EURe

Monerium EURe (EURE) is a euro-denominated stablecoin issued as electronic money under the European Economic Area (EEA) regulatory framework. It is developed by Monerium EMI ehf, an Iceland-based company licensed by the Central Bank of Iceland to issue e-money. Unlike algorithmic or collateral-backed stablecoins, EURe carries the legal status of redeemable electronic money, which provides a clear legal foundation and direct ties to the traditional financial system. Each EURe token is backed 1:1 by safeguarded euro deposits in custodial accounts, ensuring full redeemability at any time.

The project began in 2016, positioning itself as one of the earliest initiatives to connect fiat currencies and blockchain settlement through regulated infrastructure. By being classified as e-money, Monerium EURe operates within the same frameworks as licensed payment institutions, allowing it to integrate with businesses, developers, and financial applications requiring euro-denominated digital transactions.

In 2024, Monerium introduced a significant upgrade to its token contracts, migrating EURe from version 1 (V1) to version 2 (V2). The transition was phased across major chains, Polygon in August, Gnosis in late August, and Ethereum in December, and aimed to enhance efficiency, usability, and compliance.

The V2 contracts bring several improvements. The most immediate benefit is reduced gas costs, with transfers and approvals consuming less than half the resources compared to V1. This makes using EURe more affordable, especially in environments where transaction costs are a barrier. In addition, V2 introduces support for ERC-2612 Permit, allowing gasless approvals through off-chain signatures. This feature simplifies interactions with DeFi applications, where token approvals are frequent and often cumbersome.

A key design principle of the migration was continuity. Holders did not need to take any action: balances remained unchanged, and V1 tokens now forward all operations to the V2 contracts. This means that even users interacting with V1 addresses benefit from the improved efficiency and features of V2. Some temporary quirks, such as wallets displaying both V1 and V2 tokens or duplicate transfer events, are expected as infrastructure providers adapt, but balances and functionality remain consistent.

Importantly, Monerium has committed to supporting both versions indefinitely. V1 tokens continue to be valid and redeemable, while V2 represents the modernised standard for ongoing development and ecosystem adoption. The migration process also required technical adjustments for developers and indexers, who needed to transition their systems to account for the new event structures in V2.