Tether will not apply for a MiCA license to operate in the EU

The company’s head talked about the risks that the new law’s requirements create for the banking system

02.05.2025 - 10:10

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3 min

What’s new? Tether, which issues the largest stablecoin USDT with a capitalization of $148,34 billion, does not intend to apply for a license under the EU-wide Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. While such a decision entails delisting Tether-issued assets by crypto exchanges to users in Europe, which Bitstamp, Uphold, and CryptoCom have already done, the company believes the new rules pose risks for stablecoins.

Material by Cointelegrph

What else is known? Speaking at the Token2049 conference in Dubai, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino explained that the MiCA license threatens the banking system in Europe due to the requirement to keep 60% of reserves in insured cash deposits in local financial institutions. He added:

“I decided to not apply to the MiCA license because I need to protect the 400 million+ users that we have around the world. They are not as lucky as Europeans. I love Europe, but I think that unfortunately European Central Bank is more interested [in pushing] the digital euro as a way to control people and control how they spend their money.”

EU authorities began implementing MiCA requirements in December 2024. Tether, registered in El Salvador, is required to comply with MiCA to offer products and services in EU member states.

ECB has said it needed to tighten MiCA to protect against threats from dollar-pegged stablecoins

In turn, the European Commission said that the bank misinterpreted the norms of the law, and in its current form it is already capable of protecting the bloc’s economy

Speaking about his intentions to operate in the US, Ardoino said that the country “would require a different type of product,” given the competition with local stablecoin issuers. He clarified that Tether will launch the product in the local market late this year or early next year, depending on the speed of regulatory adoption for the industry.

Tether has repeatedly emphasized that it is targeting users in emerging markets who do not have access to traditional banking. The company invested in Fizen last month to expand the adoption of stablecoin payments.

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