Stablecoins enter Europe’s regulated fund market
Coinbase and Spiko have launched instant payment support for USDC and EURC in regulated UCITS funds in Europe. Under the new setup, Spiko’s EU Treasury Bill Money Market Fund and US Treasury Bill Money Market Fund now accept the two stablecoins for subscriptions, making them among the first UCITS products in Europe to offer stablecoin funding options.
UCITS is one of the European Union’s best-known regulatory frameworks for investment funds, designed around investor protection, diversification, and cross-border distribution. Bringing stablecoin payments into this structure marks an important step for blockchain infrastructure as it moves into one of the most tightly regulated segments of traditional finance. For institutional investors, the model is aimed at making it easier to move between regulated short-term debt funds and digital assets.
24/7 access and faster redemptions
According to the companies, investors can subscribe to fund units with USDC or EURC at any time, including weekends and public holidays, without waiting for banking hours or standard settlement windows. On redemption, stablecoins can be sent to wallets within minutes. That could reduce the amount of capital left idle while transactions are being processed, a long-standing inefficiency in traditional markets.
Coinbase and Spiko said the integration shows that regulated financial products and digital assets can work together while staying fully aligned with legal and compliance requirements. Rather than replacing existing financial structures, the initiative appears designed to combine blockchain speed with the safeguards expected in regulated markets.
Base and Coinbase Payments power the system
The payment rails are provided through Coinbase Payments, while transactions are finalized on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network. Coinbase is also supplying the wallet infrastructure and payment tools required for the process. The companies said this approach preserves the security and compliance standards expected by regulated financial institutions while improving operational efficiency.
Base is designed to process transactions faster and at lower cost than Ethereum mainnet. Its use in this case highlights how blockchain infrastructure is increasingly being positioned not only for crypto-native activity, but also for practical use in regulated investment products and institutional fund operations.
Institutional demand for T+0 settlement keeps growing
Coinbase cited research from EY Parthenon showing that 88% of institutional investors see same-day, T+0 securities settlement as one of the main use cases for stablecoins. The Spiko integration directly targets that need by addressing slow settlement cycles and limited fund accessibility. Faster subscriptions, redemptions, and transfers could improve treasury management for investors and reduce capital inefficiencies.
The announcement comes as institutional interest in blockchain-based settlement continues to rise. At the same time, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has renewed his call to reform accredited investor rules in the United States, while Coinbase’s separate partnership with Checkout is expanding stablecoin acceptance for institutional clients. Together, these developments point to a closer link between traditional payment channels and on-chain settlement systems.