EXCLUSIVE — HEURO: The Dark Side of the €600 Million Stablecoin

* We have included a right of reply from Heuro in response to the article

On Monday, French company Heuro SAS announced it had issued €600 million worth of its new HEURO stablecoin, with part of the reserve set to be invested in French sovereign bonds.

An operation "nobody saw coming," which earned Heuro a glowing endorsement from France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure, quoted directly in the company's press release:

"This new issuance nearly doubles the global outstanding supply of euro-denominated stablecoins — in a market that has until now been overwhelmingly dollar-dominated — and shows our European ecosystem the way forward in strengthening our sovereignty and the euro's role in the global economy. This success illustrates France's attractiveness for tokenized finance players, and the security and competitiveness that Europe's MiCA regulation provides."

Virtually unknown just days ago, the project is now the world's largest euro stablecoin, leapfrogging established players like Circle's EURC (€364 million) and Société Générale-Forge's EURCV (€104 million), both of which have been around for years.

Except that since the announcement, unease has been spreading through the corridors of Paris Blockchain Week, one of the industry's biggest global conferences, held this week.

Everyone there was talking about one thing: HEURO.

And not with anything close to the minister's enthusiasm.

Four Name Changes and an Opaque Hong Kong Holding Company

"Several things are surfacing, and it wouldn't be surprising if their electronic money institution license — the one that allows them to issue a stablecoin from within the EU — gets suspended soon," a source close to the government told us.

So what exactly is being held against Heuro? On paper, the company has the required regulatory credentials, including a listing among EMT stablecoin issuers on the register of ESMA, Europe's financial watchdog.

"A number of warning signs have piled up in a short period of time," another source confirmed. "The shareholding structure of the issuing entity is offshore, and the company has changed its name at least four times."

The Big Whale has independently confirmed this information.

Before becoming Heuro SAS in December 2025, the company had previously operated under the names Unirpay and Harmoniie SAS since its founding in October 2017. Adding to the confusion, it also uses the trade name OuiTrust.

Until recently, the company was run exclusively by executives of Chinese nationality. A new structure took shape in 2025: Heuro SAS, wholly owned by EasyEuro Technology Limited, registered in Hong Kong.

Who actually owns it? That's unclear, thanks to the opacity of Hong Kong's corporate registry system.

But the French-registered entity does feature some well-known — and recently recruited — figures.

The company has been chaired since December 2025 by Patrick Starkman, who previously led the French arm of online payment solution Checkout (where he served as country manager until December 2025) and currently holds the role of secretary general at AFEPAME, the French association of payment institutions.

Marie-Laure Paldi, who until recently worked at the ACPR — France's banking and stablecoin regulator — has served as CEO since November 2025.

"When you see an entity that keeps changing its legal name while the same beneficial owners in Hong Kong stay in place, that's a pattern that should set off alarm bells immediately," one observer noted.

When contacted, Claire Balva, CEO of Adan (the professional association representing French crypto firms), said she wasn't familiar with the company. "We reached out to them after their announcement, but our message has gone unanswered so far."

A €600 Million Stablecoin That Nobody Can Actually Buy

For now, it is impossible for ordinary users to purchase this stablecoin — it isn't listed on any exchange.

"They issue over half a billion euros' worth of stablecoins, and you can't even get your hands on them? That makes no economic sense," one expert pointed out.

When asked about this, Patrick Starkman told The Big Whale that partnerships with crypto giants Binance, KuCoin, and Bybit (all companies of Chinese origin) were forthcoming.

>> Patrick Starkman (HEURO): "We are now the leading euro stablecoin issuer"

The communications team assured us that "teams are working on it," but the sheer accumulation of red flags has bred deep skepticism.

On top of that, the minting process — how the stablecoins are actually created on the blockchain — has been anything but textbook.

First came an initial mint on Ethereum: a large batch of tokens issued from a single source, then distributed across multiple wallets — a setup that could create the illusion of many individual investors. Next, those tokens were burned on Ethereum. And finally, re-issued on Solana.

"It's a classic manipulation playbook: you artificially inflate apparent demand, then obscure the trail by switching chains," one observer explained.

Then there's a questionable partnership that raises even more concerns.

A Trojan Horse for Chinese Funds of Dubious Origin?

According to our reporting, the company was — at least until early 2026 — routing operations through Finetix Limited SRL, a payment service provider based in Romania that has already been sanctioned by local authorities. Finetix had claimed to hold a credit institution license it did not actually possess.

"We're talking about fraudulent regulatory status — and this is the PSP serving as the payment rail for Heuro's euro-denominated operations," one expert explained.

According to an investigation by the research platform FinTelegram, published in February 2026, Finetix was acting as the "contractual recipient" for euro deposits flowing toward MEXC, a Chinese-origin crypto exchange not authorized to operate in the European Union.

Under this arrangement, SEPA Instant transfers would pass through Heuro SAS (via its OuiTrust brand) before being routed by Finetix to the offshore platform.

"The choice of Romania isn't random — it's an EU member state where scrutiny of what's really going on with transactions is, let's say, less rigorous than in France or Germany," our source noted.

The risk? That funds of dubious origin flowing from unregulated crypto exchanges could be converted into HEURO stablecoins through this Romanian intermediary.

"If you have a stablecoin issuer whose incoming flows aren't clean — and that's exactly the question this whole setup raises — and that issuer parks its reserves in sovereign bonds, then you've got a mechanism that could potentially launder money of questionable origin into public debt holdings."

"You're turning something that may not be gold into gold. And when you consider the stakes around debt financing and sovereignty, this becomes a top-tier issue."

What are the risks?

"One theory is that this project is a Trojan horse," the source explained.

"The first layer is the Eurasian rail: creating a gateway into the European financial system for actors who have no right to be there."

"The second layer is more ambitious. By becoming a massive issuer of euro-backed stablecoins, the entity could end up mechanically holding enormous amounts of European public debt as reserves."

"Their endgame could be to become the Tether of Europe. Hold vast quantities of government bonds, overtake Circle and SG-Forge, overtake everyone else. And at that point, they'd be impossible to dislodge. That's what you'd call the digital Silk Road."

How Did This Project Win Public Praise from the Finance Minister — and the Regulator's Blessing?

When contacted through official channels, both regulators — the ACPR and the AMF — declined to answer The Big Whale's questions.

Off the record, however, numerous government insiders say they are "extremely embarrassed" by how events unfolded, culminating in the Finance Minister's public endorsement.

According to our information, the ACPR (which granted the company its electronic money institution license in 2021) is expected to reopen the file very soon.

"For three years, this entity has passed through the ACPR without triggering any major alarm," a well-placed source explained. "I believe they declared a deliberately narrow scope of activity — no crypto conversion, no custody, just payment facilitation. That way, they never had to disclose the actual setup they had with the exchanges. The ACPR probably took them at their word."

The problem, as many crypto industry players told The Big Whale, is that this debacle risks tarnishing the reputation of the most serious operators in the space.

"More and more banks are building or preparing to launch euro stablecoins that will play a critical role in the financial system of tomorrow. This is really not the time for a blunder like this," a banking source concluded.

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Update

Heuro SAS has exercised its right of reply following our article published on April 18, 2026. In accordance with French law, we are publishing this right of reply in full below.

Right of reply from Heuro SAS

1. On the "troubling signals" and the alleged threat of licence suspension

The article claims that "several elements" are "coming to light" and that it is "not impossible" that Heuro's electronic money institution licence could be "suspended soon," citing an "accumulation of troubling signals."

Heuro wishes to point out that it has been licensed and supervised by the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) since December 2021, that it duly notified the authority of its stablecoin issuance — including by submitting its white paper — and that it maintains an ongoing and transparent dialogue with its regulator. To date, Heuro has never been subject to any enforcement action or adversarial proceeding from the ACPR, and on April 13, 2026, it received a formal attestation confirming compliance with its regulatory obligations and the absence of any measures against it.

Following the article's publication, Heuro also held discussions with the ACPR, which expressly denied the existence of any licence suspension procedure or enforcement action, whether current or under consideration.

2. On the corporate name changes, ownership structure, and the nationality of executives

The article references repeated "name changes," an "offshore" ownership structure, and the fact that the company was allegedly run "solely by executives of Chinese nationality" — implying an opaque and suspect arrangement.

Heuro is a simplified joint-stock company (société par actions simplifiée) incorporated under French law, registered with the Paris Commercial Registry, headquartered in Paris, and subject in full to French law — including all legal disclosure requirements. It has changed its corporate name twice since incorporation (from Unirpay to Harmoniie, then to Heuro), each time for reasons of commercial clarity and in compliance with all legal formalities, including notification to the ACPR.

As required by law, its ultimate beneficial owners and any significant shareholders are registered with the beneficial ownership registry maintained by the Commercial Court clerk's office and accessible through INPI. The beneficial owner, along with the principal shareholders, are and have always been French-resident natural persons; the significant shareholders are leading institutional investors, themselves subject to ACPR oversight. It is therefore inaccurate to describe Heuro's ownership as "offshore" or indeterminate on account of some purported "Hong Kong-based structure" — French law governs the disclosure of this information.

Heuro's current executives are French nationals. The company did have, until March 2026, one executive of Chinese nationality — a long-standing French resident, employed by the company, and in the process of obtaining French citizenship.

3. On the stablecoin's accessibility and the alleged "textbook manipulation scheme"

The article states that it is "impossible" to acquire the Heuro stablecoin, calling this an "economic nonsense," and describes a minting process it characterises as a "textbook manipulation scheme" designed to "artificially inflate apparent demand" and "obscure traceability."

Heuro notes that its stablecoin is issued and held on-chain by identified holders, and that all relevant transactions and addresses are publicly accessible — notably via Solana blockchain explorers. Initial issuance took place on both Ethereum and Solana before the company decided, for the sake of simplicity and clarity, to consolidate on Solana alone. This sequencing does not constitute any kind of "manipulation" strategy and does not correspond to any "textbook scheme" recognised in either the academic literature or market practice.

If Heuro has not yet sought listings on certain exchanges at this stage, that reflects a deliberate sequencing choice for the project — not any form of product unavailability or economic anomaly.

4. On the alleged ties to Finetix and money-laundering suspicions

The article states that Heuro used the services of Finetix Limited SRL, a sanctioned Romanian service provider, as a "rail" for its euro-denominated operations, and suggests that funds of "questionable origin" from unregulated platforms could be converted into Heuro stablecoins through this intermediary — in a mechanism that could "transform" money of uncertain provenance into sovereign debt holdings.

Heuro categorically denies having, at any point, used the services of Finetix Limited SRL or any similar provider. The company is itself licensed as a payment services provider and delivers its services directly from France, under ACPR supervision. It has never "usurped" any regulatory status nor operated through a third-party PSP for its SEPA flows.

Heuro applies rigorous anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing procedures, commits significant resources to these obligations, and undergoes the relevant regulatory audits.

5. On relations with the ecosystem, regulators, and services provided

The article describes a "deep unease" within the ecosystem and regulators said to be "extremely uncomfortable," along with the suggestion that Heuro declared an intentionally "narrow scope" of activities to conceal its actual operations.

Heuro observes, on the contrary, that the launch of its stablecoin has generated numerous positive reactions from its partners, clients, and market participants — including institutional players and individuals within the regulatory bodies — who welcome the emergence of a regulated euro stablecoin offering backed by a French company. The company has declared to the ACPR the full range of services for which it is licensed and has never provided, nor contemplated providing, undeclared conversion, custody, or payment "facilitation" services falling outside the categories prescribed by law.

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