Melker Bengtsson
TL;DR
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EU-licensed exchanges can currently offer withdrawals and custody of stablecoins unauthorized by MiCA. That ends on January 8th next year.
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No specific token was mentioned, but the one that matters is USDT, which has never sought MiCA authorization.
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Since January 2025 there has been a carve out for holding and moving these tokens. ESMA’s new opinion reverses that.
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Holders must withdraw or exit within three months. ESMA also wants the ban written into the next version of MiCA.
Stablecoins are being targeted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Today, EU-licensed crypto exchanges are allowed to offer their customers withdrawals and custody of stablecoins unauthorized by MiCA. But that'll end on January 8th of next year, the ESMA announced in a press release yesterday.
No specific token was mentioned by the ESMA but the significant one affected by this is USDT. USDT has never sought MiCA authorization. Many exchanges have already restricted usage of USDT in the EU, Binance for example delisted USDT in March 2025.
In the press release, ESMA said:
Crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) authorized under MiCA should cease providing services related to non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins to clients in the European Union.
Holding and Moving Was Still Allowed
Since January 2025, when ESMA told platforms non-authorized stablecoins had to be delisted by end of Q1 2025, there's still been a carve out for holding and moving them. Here's what ESMA said then:
... while mere custody and transfer of these crypto-assets should remain possible, EU investors should be clearly informed of the restrictions attached to the provision of crypto-asset services involving non-MiCA compliant ARTs and EMTs
This new opinion from ESMA reverses that. ESMA itself does not handle enforcement, so the opinion reaches national authorities who decide how to implement it.
Warnings and Acknowledgements Are Not Enough
The issue has been discussed before. Platforms have argued that user acknowledgements as well as issuer disclosures should be enough. ESMA themselves say that since these stablecoins won't necessarily meet MiCA's reserve, redemption and disclosure rules, the platforms themselves aren't enough to fix that. In their opinion they say:
ESMA considers that reliance on warnings, disclosures or client acknowledgements would not sufficiently address the concerns identified in this Opinion.
Holders of non-authorized stablecoins must now withdraw or exit the position within the next three months, or sooner if their national regulator says so, and platforms are allowed until then to provide the services to make that possible.
ESMA has also suggested to the European Commission to include the ban of non-authorized stablecoins in the next version of MiCA. The Commission is currently reviewing MiCA. While ESMA does not have enforcement powers, they say they'll be monitoring the enforcement by national agencies.
