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Omni Foundation, originally founded as Mastercoin back in the day, has launched a "Euro-coin" (EURT), in conjunction with Omni asset Tether Inc and other partner exchanges. The Euro-coin is tradeable and transferable over the Bitcoin blockchain.

US dollars can be converted to euros on the blockchain using USDT (dollars digitally stored using Tether) and USDE (the euro equivalent of USDT), said a statement.

In association with Edinburgh-based exchange CoinsBank, these transfers can now be transmitted directly into traditional bank accounts in Europe through SEPA transfers.

Omni Foundation currently supports USDT on Tether, which trades between half a million and a million USD a day across more than five exchanges. Tether's goal is to combine the stability of fiat currency to the utility offed by digital currency. The new EURT coin is fully backed by a banking trust in Taiwan on a one-to-one basis of deposits to coins issued. The currencies are issued using the Omni Layer protocol, which like the Bitcoin blockchain itself, is fully decentralised and allows low-cost trading with no custodian or middleman.

Omni Foundation also said it is integrating with CoinsBank to enable debit card payments for holders of Tether USD and EUR. CoinsBank averages over $2m in daily trading volume for Bitcoin against the euro, dollar and pound. Additionally, a portion of the fees OmniDex charges traders taking liquidity through debit card payments, which totals just 0.05%, will be collected by CoinsBank and automatically accrued to holders of Omni cryptocurrency.

Omni Foundation board member Patrick Dugan, said: "We're enabling price discovery and remittance for the world's most liquid market over the Bitcoin blockchain, which means we can provide a very tight trading spread combined with the lowest exchange fees in the industry."

The creation of the USDE by Omni Foundation is partly a reaction to its growing supply of Tether Dollars, which has grown to just over $6.6m, backed by bank deposits in Taiwan. Omni Foundation transfers digital assets priced as USD into euros, with EURT deposited on OpenLedger and credited to traditional bank accounts in Europe.

OpenLedger provides a decentralised exchange over Bitshares that complements Omni Layer's Bitcoin-based platform which also hosts MaidSafe, Synereo, Agoras Tokens, as well as Tether.