MoonPay gets Dutch EMI licence to issue euro stablecoin

De Nederlandsche Bank granted MoonPay an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence to its Amsterdam unit, MoonPay Europe B.V., on Sept. 8, 2026. The licence allows the company to issue euro-denominated stablecoins, offer payment accounts and payment services to consumers and businesses, and passport those services across the European Economic Area.

The EMI authorisation expands MoonPay’s regulated activities in Europe to include new payment and card products. MoonPay previously received a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) crypto-asset service provider (CASP) authorisation from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets in December 2024. Holding both permissions within one entity places the crypto-asset services layer and the e-money and payments layer under a single supervisory structure.

Under MiCA, fiat-referenced stablecoins are classified as e-money tokens and can only be issued by a bank or an authorised electronic money institution. The EMI licence provides MoonPay with the legal basis to issue a euro stablecoin directly rather than relying on third-party issuers. MoonPay stated it will be able to issue the tokens on an open-loop basis, meaning the tokens can be held, transferred and redeemed outside MoonPay’s own platform.

The licence is passportable across the EEA, enabling MoonPay Europe B.V. to provide the newly authorised services from Amsterdam to all member states. MoonPay stated the authorisation will allow it to extend existing fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat on-ramps and off-ramps into regulated euro payment rails and give partners and end users access to accounts, cards and euro liquidity under a single supervised European entity.

MoonPay was founded in 2018. Its payments infrastructure is embedded in hundreds of wallets, exchanges and consumer applications and the company serves users in more than 180 countries. The firm is the third Netherlands-based company to hold both a MiCA CASP authorisation and an EMI licence in one entity and the first to combine those permissions with open-loop stablecoin issuance capabilities.

Max von Wallenberg, CEO of MoonPay Enterprise, described the licence as “one of the strongest regulated foundations for building payments and stablecoin infrastructure in the region.”