The Stasis cryptographic platform, created by the Russians Grigory Klumov and Anatoly Knyazev, issued “crypto euro” EURS for 12.2 million euros. Cryptocurrency is backed with an equivalent amount in euros, it greatly simplifies the acquisition of any crypto assets in Malta.

Why CryptoEuro

CryptoEuro on 12.2 million euros was issued by STSS Malta Limited, the legal entity of the Stasis platform. STSS Malta Limited was registered in May 2018 in Malta. Crypto euro belongs to the category of so-called stablecoins – crypto assets, which are provided with reserves from the financial currencies. By the way, the full official name of CryptoEuro is EURS StableCoin. The new coins were sold at a price of “one to one”, that is, one cryptoeuro for one fiat euro, but the proceeds from the issue of 12 with something of millions of euros are not appropriated by the issuer, but are put in reserves. Each EURS is provided with one euro, and Stasis reports on these reserves daily to counterparties, each quarter audited by companies from the big four (EY, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG).

Who bought EURS for 12.2 million euros is not disclosed, buyers are customers of the investment company Exante. Documents on transactions were signed by Exante Director Alexei Laptev.

“Customers have accounts in Exante. It’s convenient, we can work without banks,” comments Grigory Klumov.

Exante is a key partner of Stasis and a “liquidity provider”, this investment company is engaged in online trading in 50 countries, including the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Exante also manages the world’s first hedge fund BitcoinFund; both structures were founded by Anatoly Knyazev in 2011-2012. In 2013, the fund became the most profitable hedge fund in world history, having shown a record profitability of 4847% due to the strong growth of bitcoin.

Grigory Klumov told about plans to release EURS in December. Since then, the situation has changed, Malta adopted laws that legalize the turnover of the cryptocurrency, according to which crypto euro was issued. By the end of this year, Stasis intends to bring the release of crypto euro to 500 million euros in several subscriptions.

Why do we need CryptoEuro? Its issuers believe that it can become a convenient settlement facility for the purchase of crypto assets, especially in Malta, where now it is possible to work with investment funds and cryptocurrencies, and, in the future, banks. The reasons for convenience are two. First, the availability of reserves should, in theory, stabilize the rate of crypto euro – this will be different for the better from volatile bitcoins and ethers. Secondly, transactions in crypto euro are cheap and fast. EURS allows to send a payment fast (in contrast to banks) to anywhere in the world for just 50 cents, and no one will stop this payment, because it goes through the blockchain.

“Once Stasis takes a stable position in the market and trades on large sites, we can use it as a hedge tool,” says Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder and partner at The Token Fund.

Expected doubts

Not everything, however, is so simple. There is no certainty that crypto euro can play the role of a means of payment for crypto assets because it depends solely on the willingness of crypto asset sellers to accept such currency as a fee. However, the currency is new and has not gained authority. Of course, the reserves of the fiat euro would be able to obviously influence the authority, increase the liquidity and stability of the crypto euro exchange rate, but this can happen only if the crypto euro is converted into Fiat sufficiently free. However, STSS Malta Limited imposes the following restrictions: only those who concentrate their hands 10 million EURS can convert crypto euro into ordinary money. The smaller amounts of STSS Malta do not “exchange”, which means that the majority of potential users of the new cryptocurrency cannot convert it. They can only hope that crypto euro will be liquid in the free market. Currently, EURS accepts only 6 restaurants in Malta, and exchanges only 1 ATM. Crypto euro can be bought on the London crypto exchange DSX, HitBTC, payment system ePayments, Exante. Stasis Wallet, or Stasis crypto wallet, can be downloaded from the AppStore and GooglePlay.

So far, the total volume of emission is limited to 12.2 million euros, and this leads one to suspect that the issuer could theoretically take some measures that would rule out the possibility of concentrating 10 million crypto euro in one hand. To do this, issuers will be sufficient to concentrate part of the issue in the ownership of affiliated structures. As for the cost of crypto euro translations, it can be raised to 1% of the amount over time. It should also be noted that issuers did not issue White Paper at all, referring to the fact that issuance of the cryptocurrency is not an investment attraction. And finally, as in the case of any ICO, there is, in theory, a danger that once the reserves will be assigned by the issuer – legally it will not be a crime, and no audit can prevent it. True, the creators of the new cryptocurrency claim that the board of directors of the fund is being formed, well-known people will be invited to it, which will guarantee the standards of corporate governance and the fact that the issuer will not assign reserves.

Malta and stablecoins

The launch of the new digital currency took place in the building of the Maltese Chamber of Commerce on July 4, where Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also announced new legislation in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, which was adopted by the Maltese Parliament.

Malta allowed to conduct ICO, while obliging each project to disclose its financial data and publish White Paper with a detailed description of all the parameters of crowdfunding. In Malta already placed their offices such large exchanges, as OKEx, Binance and BitBay. The Minister of Digital Economy and Innovation of Malta, Silvio Schembri, welcomes Stasis as an innovative blockchain project.

It should be noted that EURS StableCoin is not the only stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market. Prior to the crypto euro Tether (USDT) appeared, secured by the US dollar. It was launched by Tether Ltd., created by Philip Potter, the chief strategist for Bitfinex exchange, and the chief financial officer of the Bitfinex exchange, Giancarlo Devazini, in 2014. Many leading crypto exchanges, such as Poloniex, Bittrex and Huobi, use USDT as a replacement for the dollar. However, last year, as part of the investigation of Paradise Papers, it was clarified that there was a conspiracy between Tether Ltd. and the Bitfinex exchange for the purpose of the artificial pump of bitcoin price due to the massive emission of USDT tokens.

In July, the Stronghold startup, in partnership with IBM, announced that it will create a USD-bound US tethered stablecoin to directly purchase the Stellar (XLM) blockchain tokens. Stellar, a branch of Ripple‘s blockchain, is a faster blockchain than bitcoin, etherium and EOS for today: it allows you to make 3000 transactions per second.

In May, the cryptocurrency startup Circle, with the support of the largest producer of mining equipment, Bitmain, announced the release of its own “dollar token” – USDC. Circle acquired the crypto credit of Poloniex, USDC needs this site to abandon the compromised Tether (USDT).