The European stablecoin market has changed noticeably after tighter regulation was introduced. One of the new digital assets that comply with EU legal requirements is Quantoz USDQ. This stablecoin was designed for lawful circulation in European Union countries and operation within the framework of the new rules.
Quantoz USDQ is a stablecoin launched at the end of 2024 and pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio.
The issuer is Quantoz Payments, a fintech project from the Netherlands that has been operating since 2015. The company specializes in issuing stablecoins backed by fiat currencies, including the US dollar and the euro. In addition to USDQ, Quantoz Payments has also issued euro-oriented tokens, EURD and EURQ.
Quantoz Payments possesses an EMI (Electronic Money Institution)* license issued by the Dutch regulator, authorizing the company to issue digital payment instruments for legal use in the European Economic Area. The Quantoz USDQ project has also garnered backing from leading crypto industry players, including Kraken* and Tether.
* EMI (Electronic Money Institution) is an electronic money institution, meaning a company that has obtained the right to issue electronic money and provide related payment services. In the European legal framework, an EMI is not a bank, but a licensed participant in the financial market that can legally issue digital payment obligations backed by fiat funds. Having an EMI license means the issuer is subject to regulatory supervision and must comply with requirements on reserves, client fund protection, compliance, AML (anti-money laundering), KYC (customer identification and verification), and operational resilience.
* Kraken is one of the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, meaning a licensed trading platform through which users can buy, sell, store, and transfer digital assets.
USDQ is backed by reserves exceeding 100%. These reserves include real cash funds and government bonds. These assets are held in the Stichting Quantoz foundation, a structure protected from bankruptcy. This mechanism is intended to improve the safety of asset holders and reduce risks in the event of a depeg*.
* Depeg is a deviation of a stablecoin’s price from its target reference benchmark, for example, from 1 US dollar. For stable assets, depeg is one of the key market risks. It can occur for various reasons: doubts about the sufficiency of reserves, liquidity problems, mass redemptions of cryptocurrency, technical failures, regulatory pressure, or a crisis of confidence in the issuer. In professional assessment, a depeg can be short-term and technical, when the price quickly returns to parity, or structural, when the market begins to doubt the backing model itself.
What is known about USDQ
USDQ was issued in November 2024 on the Ethereum network and operates under the ERC-20 standard. Like most stablecoins, it does not have its own blockchain and exists as an asset created through a smart contract (a self-executing agreement on the blockchain) within the Ethereum ecosystem.
At the same time, it is important to consider that USDQ is a regulated digital asset. Its smart contract (a self-executing agreement on the blockchain) is centrally managed by the issuer. This means that, in certain cases, the issuing company may restrict specific USDQ operations, such as transfers or exchanges.
What USDQ can be used for
Quantoz USDQ can be used in various scenarios, including:
international transfers and settlements with relatively low fees;
use as collateral for lending and obtaining liquidity;
salary payments, as well as corporate and direct payments;
accounting, distribution, and consolidation of payments in business processes;
micropayments;
trading in pairs with crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as exchanging them for other stablecoins;
working with decentralized finance protocols, including lending, liquidity pools, and allocating funds for yield.
Where USDQ can be bought and stored
Any crypto wallet compatible with the Ethereum network and supporting ERC-20 tokens is suitable for storing USDQ. Users can choose mobile and desktop solutions, as well as hardware wallets for cold storage.
USDQ can be obtained in several ways:
directly from the issuer, although this option is available only to EU residents;
through crypto exchanges and trading platforms, including;
on the over-the-counter market;
through exchange services and aggregators such as BestChange.
To buy on centralized exchanges, a verified account is usually required. At the same time, registration on such platforms is not available in all countries. On decentralized exchanges, there are fewer such restrictions: USDQ can be purchased using other digital assets if the user has a compatible wallet and the exchange has the required liquidity pool*.
* A liquidity pool is a reserve of cryptocurrency used in decentralized finance for asset exchange. Usually, pairs of assets are deposited into a pool, for example, USDQ/ETH or USDQ/USDC. From an economic perspective, a liquidity pool is a mechanism that ensures continuous trading.