Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, recently expressed disappointment about changes happening in Europe. These changes are due to the new European Union regulations called the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. Tether is concerned as exchanges like Crypto.com are getting ready to delist its USDt stablecoin in the region.
On January 29, Crypto.com announced it would start removing Tether’s USDt and nine other tokens from its platform on January 31 to comply with MiCA. A Tether spokesperson said, “It is disappointing to see the rushed actions brought on by statements which do little to clarify the basis for such moves.”
Tether has warned that these MiCA-driven changes could pose serious risks for consumers in the EU and the local crypto market. With exchanges like Crypto.com preparing to delist multiple tokens, a Tether representative noted, “These changes affect many tokens in the EU market, not only USDt, and we fear that such actions will lead to further risk being placed on consumers in the EU.”
The company believes that these regulatory changes might create a “disorderly” market, especially since MiCA is still in its early stages. Crypto.com’s delisting process will impact a total of 10 tokens, including Wrapped Bitcoin and Dai stablecoin.
Coinbase, which removed USDT in December 2024, also announced it would delist six tokens to comply with MiCA. The exchange had already delisted WBTC on its platform for other reasons on December 19, 2024. A Coinbase representative mentioned, “We regularly review the assets we make available to customers on our platform to ensure we are meeting regulatory requirements, and will assess re-enabling services for stablecoins that achieve MiCA compliance on a later date.” So far, Coinbase has delisted a total of eight tokens to meet MiCA requirements.
Tether reiterated that MiCA has negative implications for stablecoins licensed in the EU. The company stated, “As we have consistently expressed, some aspects of MiCA make the operation of EU-licensed stablecoins more complex and potentially introduce new risks.”
They also pointed out the differences in stablecoin usage between Europe and emerging markets, where USDT is quite popular. “The USD stablecoin market is almost negligible in Europe,” the spokesperson added.
Despite these concerns, Tether commended EU regulators for their efforts in establishing a structured framework. This framework is crucial for growth in the sector. The spokesperson noted, “As Tether finalizes its European strategy for USDt, it remains committed to ensuring compliance with evolving regulations while introducing groundbreaking technologies such as Hadron and investments in transformative projects such as Quantor, designed to be MiCA compliant.”
Tether’s comments came right after the European Securities and Markets Authority urged European crypto asset service providers (CASP) to start restricting non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins by the end of January. While they can still list these tokens in sell mode until March 31, the regulator has asked CASPs to completely restrict non-compliant stablecoins by the end of the first quarter of 2025.