Kraken considers delisting USDT in Europe due to MiCA rules

Kraken could drop EU support for Tether’s USDT stablecoin, Bloomberg reported on May 17.

Kraken Global Head of Regulatory Strategy Marcus Hughes said the company is planning for circumstances in which it is “not tenable to list specific tokens such as USDT.”

The EU’s regulatory landscape is set to change when the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) guidance comes into effect in July. MiCA will require companies that issue fiat-backed stablecoins, such as Tether, to register as electronic money institutions (EMIs) and meet other requirements.

Hughes said that new regulations will reduce the number and varieties of stablecoins available in Europe depending on which firms comply with the EU’s regime.

Other statements do not describe delisting. In a separate report from The Block, a Kraken spokesperson said that the firm continually examines its global strategy and operations for compliance but has “no current plans to delist Tether or alter [its] USDT trading pairs.”

EU regulatory concerns

Tether told Bloomberg that it expects exchanges to maintain USDT as an on-ramp and off-ramp while providing EUR liquidity for European customers.

Tether also referred to the concerns of its CTO, Paolo Ardoino, in its statement. Ardoino criticized the MiCA’s “strong constraints” around reserve management and said the company does not have plans to gain regulatory approval in the EU “for the moment.”

Other crypto exchanges have also made similar moves in recent months in anticipation of MiCA. OKX delisted Tether for EU users in March but did not directly cite the upcoming regulations. The company said it would continue to support Circle’s competing USDC stablecoin.

Elsewhere, Binance France’s head of legal, Marina Parthuisot, said in September 2023 said the company could delist “all stablecoins in Europe on June 30.”

Binance’s then-CEO, Changpeng Zhao, later said this was taken out of context and that the firm had partnered with compliant stablecoins issuers.

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