Key Takeaways
German stablecoin issuer AllUnity will launch a Swedish krona-backed stablecoin in June, a move aimed at carving out a niche in a market where non-dollar tokens account for just 0.2% of the total supply. The new stablecoin, dubbed SEKAU, will be fully regulated under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.
"Sweden has long been a global leader in the transition toward a cashless economy, but that transition also requires a new form of digital money that is interoperable and globally accessible," AllUnity CEO Alexander Höptner said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Frankfurt-based firm, a joint venture backed by DWS, Flow Traders, and Galaxy Digital (GLXY), is already regulated by Germany's BaFin and has previously launched euro and Swiss franc-denominated stablecoins. The initiative is part of a wider European push to reduce reliance on U.S. dollar-pegged tokens like Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, which together command over 80% of the global stablecoin market. A parallel effort by banking consortium Qivalis recently expanded to 37 lenders to build a competing euro-pegged stablecoin.
The launch of SEKAU coincides with AllUnity's rollout of "Agentic Payments," an infrastructure designed for the burgeoning AI economy. The system, which uses Coinbase's x402 payment standard, aims to provide regulated, trusted rails for businesses to accept payments initiated by autonomous software agents, with settlement directly into local bank accounts. This positions the firm to capture a new wave of automated, machine-to-machine transactions.
The dominance of the dollar in the stablecoin market presents a significant challenge for alternatives. USD-pegged stablecoins account for about 99% of the market, creating a deep liquidity moat that is difficult for newcomers to overcome. This "chicken-and-egg problem," where low liquidity deters traders and a lack of traders prevents liquidity from forming, has so far stifled the growth of euro-pegged and other non-dollar stablecoins, despite the regulatory clarity offered by MiCA.
However, a concerted push is underway. S&P Global Ratings recently projected that the euro stablecoin market alone could grow from roughly €770 million today to as much as €1.1 trillion by 2030, driven by institutional adoption and the tokenization of finance. AllUnity's multi-currency strategy, starting with the euro and Swiss franc and now expanding to the Swedish krona, is a direct attempt to build the foundational infrastructure for that growth.
Beyond challenging the dollar's grip, AllUnity is setting its sights on a new frontier: programmable, AI-driven commerce.
"Europe needs regulated, trusted rails built for this new reality," said Peter Grosskopf, CTO and COO at AllUnity. "AllUnity is the gateway for businesses in Europe enabling them to accept, settle, and operationalize agentic payments at scale."
By integrating with Coinbase's x402 standard, a protocol for facilitating machine-to-machine payments, AllUnity is betting that the future of digital commerce will involve autonomous AI agents transacting for services, data, and content. Providing a regulated, multi-currency stablecoin platform could be a critical piece of infrastructure for that emerging economy, moving beyond the crypto-trading-centric use cases that dominate the stablecoin market today.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
