Much like the global economy, stablecoins are evolving from a dollar-dominated story to a multipolar future.
When people hear ‘stablecoin,’ they usually think of USDT or USDC—USD-backed tokens that became the standard rails for trading and settlement.
But the market is broader. Euro-pegged, gold-backed, and even RMB-pegged stablecoins are gaining traction. Rather than competing with the dollar, these tokens serve different purposes: reducing FX friction in Europe, providing an on-chain gold hedge, or enabling regional cross-border payments.
In short, the narrative is moving beyond a single USD track toward a more global, multi-asset landscape.
1) Why look beyond USD stablecoins?
They remain the backbone of crypto liquidity. Over the past few years, USDT and USDC have dominated by market cap and trading volume, powering the vast majority of trading, settlement, and payments.
Data from CoinGecko shows that their combined share has often exceeded 90% of the entire stablecoin market—an influence even greater than the dollar’s share in global trade.
Source: CoinGecko
But demand doesn’t stop at “USD only.”
- Europe: Everyday pricing, accounting, and savings are denominated in EUR. Holding USD tokens creates ongoing EUR–USD FX exposure.
- Middle East & Southeast Asia: The dollar still anchors international settlement, but users increasingly want stablecoins pegged to local currencies or safe-haven assets.
- Macro trends: De-dollarization debates, the rise of regional currency blocs, and the financialization of energy and resources are fueling interest in non-USD pegs.
In other words, today’s demand for non-USD stablecoins isn’t about flaws in USD tokens—it reflects a wider range of real-world and on-chain needs.
At imToken, we view stablecoins through the lens of user needs—there’s no single narrative anymore. In our framework, Stablecoins, Simplified: A Practical Guide to User Needs, we group stablecoins into several practical categories.
Among those, and focusing on assets that are already issued and circulating, two non-USD types stand out today: euro-pegged and gold-backed stablecoins.
Source: Non-USD stablecoins on imToken Web (web.token.im).
2) Beyond USD: Key Stablecoin Types
Euro-pegged stablecoins
Notable examples include EURC (by Circle) and EURS (by Stasis). Both maintain a 1:1 peg to the euro with reserves held at regulated institutions, serving primarily European users.
For example, a German investor relying on USDT as their trading rail incurs EUR–USD FX risk every time they switch between euros and USD stablecoins. By using a euro stablecoin, they can trade and settle on-chain while avoiding that FX friction.
As the EU’s MiCA framework rolls out, the compliance path and use cases for euro stablecoins are coming into focus. Their market caps remain smaller than USD counterparts, but strong policy tailwinds are positioning euro stablecoins to become the euro-native rails of European crypto finance over time.
Source: Circle
Gold-backed stablecoins
Tokens like PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAU₮) each represent one troy ounce of physical gold, held in licensed vaults (e.g., in London or Switzerland).
Compared with bars or gold ETFs, the key innovation lies in divisibility and liquidity:
- Physical gold is difficult to divide or transfer.
- ETFs offer convenience but remain bound by market hours and traditional settlement systems.
Gold-backed tokens combine the security of hard assets with on-chain transferability and fine-grained denomination—lowering the barrier to transactions.
Of course, gold prices fluctuate with interest rates, economic growth, and geopolitics. Unlike USD stablecoins, gold-backed tokens don’t stay flat, but they offer a hard-asset allocation for on-chain portfolios.
Two paths, one direction
- EUR: regional currency rails reinforced by regulatory clarity.
- Gold: digital access to a traditional hedge with greater liquidity.
Together, they move the market beyond a single-currency narrative.
3) What’s next for non-USD stablecoins?
From a macro perspective, non-USD stablecoins are unlikely to displace USD tokens anytime soon. The dollar’s role in global trade and cross-border settlement remains deeply entrenched.
That doesn’t make them irrelevant. Instead, they complement the existing system and broaden the set of options:
- Euro stablecoins reduce FX friction for European users and, under MiCA, could emerge as regional digital-finance primitives.
- Gold-backed tokens combine store-of-value characteristics with on-chain liquidity, providing a flexible hedge.
Meanwhile, recent reports suggest that RMB-pegged stablecoins are beginning to enter the conversation. Although not yet circulating at scale, they could gather policy support and practical use cases in cross-border and regional trade. Coupled with compliant on-chain infrastructure, an RMB stablecoin could become a meaningful instrument in the broader de-dollarization debate.
Challenges to Watch
- Thin liquidity: Compared with USDT and USDC’s market caps in the hundreds of billions, most non-USD tokens remain much smaller, limiting market depth and adoption.
- Narrower scope: Euro stablecoins are primarily regional, gold tokens are mostly store-of-value plays, and RMB tokens will likely depend on policy windows—none has yet emerged as a global default.
Looking Ahead: Stablecoins are moving toward multipolarity. USD-pegged tokens remain the main trunk, while euro, RMB, and gold pegs address distinct, real-world needs. They may not displace the dollar, but they broaden the definition of what a stablecoin can be and are reshaping the layers of the ecosystem.
The USD was the starting point—not the finish line.