Kraken Europe Considering Delisting Tether For Trading: Report

An upcoming regime for digital assets that is scheduled to take effect in July, may trigger the removal of United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT from the Kraken trading platform.

Will Kraken Delist Tether USDT From its Platform?

The top cryptocurrency exchange is allegedly mulling the idea of delisting the stablecoin from its platform in the European Union. In an interview held on Thursday, Kraken’s global head of regulatory strategy Marcus Hughes, confirmed that the decision is currently under review.

“We’re absolutely planning for all eventualities, including situations where it’s just not tenable to list specific tokens such as USDT,” Hughes said “It’s something that we’re actively reviewing, and as the position becomes clearer, we can take firm decisions on that.”

The EU showed its commitment to the digital asset sector in its jurisdiction by introducing a cryptocurrency regulatory framework dubbed Market in Capital Assets (MiCA).  This regulation has been under review for a long while with plans to finally launch in July 2024, just around summer

Ordinarily stablecoins are used by investors who wish to transfer digital assets between exchanges. However, MiCA places restrictions on these stablecoins that are offered to investors as they will be supervised by the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Together, the EBA and the ESMA, EU’s market regulator have been working on introducing more rules for stablecoins in the form of Regulatory Technical Standards (RTSs).

The intense effort towards stablecoin regulation is fueled by the tragic collapse of Terra Luna’s UST in 2022.

Tether CEO Identifies Discrepancies in MiCA 

In response to the situation, Tether noted that its expectation of exchanges is that they “rightfully focus on EUR liquidity for European customers, while maintaining USDT as an on-ramp off-ramp solution.”

Additionally, the USDT issuer highlighted that it’s CEO Paolo Ardoino previously expressed his concerns about certain aspects of the MiCA regulation and its requirements. While Tether has voiced its commitment to reaching a consensus with regulators in different jurisdictions, Ardoino stated that the firm has no plans to be regulated under MiCA’s framework for now.

Exchanges like OKX have gone ahead of Kraken to phase out USDT on their platform in Europe in preparation for MiCA implementation. Noteworthy, the MiCA regulation will not take effect until 2025.

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