The European Banking Authority classified USDC as a significant e-money token on October 14, the first of 45 tokens notified under MiCA to get the label. The decision covers USDC issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, Circle's French entity. From November 12, 2026 the EBA takes over supervision of the token's reserve and capital from France's ACPR.
An e-money token, or EMT, is a crypto-asset that tracks one official currency. MiCA, the EU's crypto law, gives large ones a second tier of rules and a second supervisor. USDC is the first to reach it. DefiLlama put USDC's supply at $72.7 billion on October 16, second to Tether's USDT at $183.5 billion.
How a token becomes significant
Article 43 of MiCA lists seven criteria. Three are numeric: more than 10 million holders, a market value or reserve above 5 billion euros, and more than 2.5 million transactions a day worth more than 500 million euros.
The other four are qualitative: the issuer is a designated gatekeeper platform, the token is used at scale for international payments, it is interconnected with the financial system, or the same issuer runs another token plus a crypto service. The EBA must classify a token as significant when at least three criteria are met.
The press release does not say which three USDC met, and it gives no holder or transaction figures. USDC is issued jointly by the French entity and Circle Internet Financial, LLC in the United States, so the EU share of that $72.7 billion is not public either.
The EBA reassesses the list every year under Article 43(8), so the label can be lost as well as gained. EURC, Circle's euro token, was not classified. DefiLlama shows its supply near 498 million euros.
What the label changes, and what it does not
The visible change is the supervisor. Circle France has held an electronic money institution licence from the ACPR since July 1, 2024, the day MiCA's stablecoin rules began to apply. Under Article 117 a significant EMT issued by an e-money institution falls under dual supervision. The EBA release splits the work as follows.
| Area | From November 12, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Own funds (capital) | EBA |
| Reserve of assets | EBA |
| Liquidity requirements | EBA |
| Recovery and redemption plans | EBA |
| Governance, qualifying holdings | ACPR |
| Fit and proper, outsourcing, conflicts | ACPR |
The rules tighten too. Article 58 applies the significant-token articles to the issuer. Own funds must reach at least 3 percent of the average reserve of assets, under Article 45(5), against a 2 percent baseline in Article 35. The issuer needs a liquidity management policy and regular liquidity stress tests, and the EBA may raise the liquidity bar after a test. The independent audit of the reserve moves to every six months from the date of the decision.
The deposit rule is the part Circle contests. In its October 1 response to the European Commission's MiCA review, Circle describes the bank deposit floor as 30 percent of reserve assets for EMT issuers, rising to 60 percent for significant ones. It asked the Commission to replace that minimum with a liquidity requirement, citing the $3.3 billion of USDC reserves caught in Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 as the risk of forced deposits.
The EBA's decision applies the rules as they stand. It does not change them, and the Commission's review is still open.
ACPR authorises Circle France; MiCA stablecoin rules apply.
Response to the Commission review: drop the deposit floors.
USDC classified significant, first of 45 EMTs.
EBA supervises reserve, capital, liquidity, redemption plans.
Article 43(8): the label is reviewed every year.
Two things stay the same for holders. The issuer and the redemption right at par do not change, and the Crypto Times notes the decision gives Circle no new licence. The EBA also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services, which regulates Circle's US entity, to share information on the token's cross-border activity.
What to watch
The handover date is November 12. Under Article 119 the EBA runs a supervisory college for each significant token, so the first public sign of the new regime may be the college's membership rather than a rule. The first six-monthly audit falls around April 2027, counting from the October 14 decision.
The Commission's MiCA review will decide whether the 30 and 60 percent deposit floors survive. Circle, and according to Cointelegraph the European Central Bank, favour a liquidity test instead. Any change needs a legislative proposal, so the 60 percent floor binds Circle France from November 12 whatever the review concludes.
The other stablecoin date in Europe is January 8, 2027. That is the outside date ESMA set for MiCA-licensed platforms to wind down services on non-compliant stablecoins, USDT among them. We cover it on our ESMA deadline page. For how a stablecoin reserve works and where it can break, see our stablecoins guide.
