The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on October 8 that crypto firms licensed under MiCA should stop providing any service on stablecoins that do not comply with the regulation. National regulators must have remaining client exposures remediated within three months of publication. That sets an outside date of January 8, 2027.
MiCA, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, requires a stablecoin issuer to be authorised and to publish an approved white paper before its token is offered or admitted to trading in the EU. Those rules have applied since June 30, 2024. The opinion, reference ESMA75-113276571-1742, is addressed to national regulators, which apply it to the firms they supervise.
What changes from the 2025 round
In January 2025, ESMA and the European Commission said that running a trading platform or a brokerage for a non-compliant stablecoin could amount to offering it to the public. ESMA expected those services to stop and allowed sell-only access until the end of March 2025. Custody and transfers sat outside that round, so EU platforms could still hold such tokens and move them for clients, as Cointelegraph noted this week.
The new opinion closes that gap. Paragraph 21 lists every MiCA service: operating a trading platform, exchange, order execution, reception and transmission of orders, placing, advice, transfers, custody and portfolio management. ESMA's reasoning is that the risk comes from the token's missing issuer safeguards, not from the service itself. Warnings and client acknowledgements cannot fix that, it says, so firms need "technical, contractual and organisational controls" that stop EU clients from acquiring or increasing positions.
Issuers of ARTs and EMTs need authorisation and a white paper.
Trading services to stop, sell-only until end of March 2025.
Pre-MiCA service providers need a MiCA licence.
All nine services, including custody and transfers.
Legacy exposures remediated, wind-down windows closed.
What a holder can still do
The wind-down window is a regulator's choice, not a right. Paragraph 23 says national regulators may allow "strictly limited residual services" for firms that do not yet comply, so that positions close in an orderly way. Those services must be time-limited, clearly communicated to clients and closely supervised. A holder on an EU platform should expect a sell, convert or withdraw option, and nothing else.
| Service on a non-compliant stablecoin | Status under the opinion |
|---|---|
| Buying, or adding to a position | Should stop, with controls that prevent it |
| Trading platform listing, exchange, order execution | Should stop |
| Custody and transfers as ongoing services | Should stop |
| Advice and portfolio management | Should stop |
| Selling, converting, withdrawing or transferring out existing holdings | Allowed only as a time-limited wind-down, closely supervised |
The practical effect lands on the platform, not the token. A non-compliant stablecoin can keep circulating on-chain and on non-EU venues. What changes is that a MiCA-licensed firm can no longer be the place where an EU client buys, holds or moves it. CoinDesk reported that several platforms in the European Economic Area had already restricted USDT for their users before this week.
Which tokens are affected
ESMA names no token and publishes no list. Each national regulator decides for the firms it supervises, based on whether the issuer meets Title III or Title IV of MiCA. ESMA's interim register of e-money token white papers, downloaded on October 9, includes Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, authorised by France's ACPR on July 1, 2024. No entity named Tether appears in it. Crypto Briefing reported that Tether has said it does not intend to apply for an EU e-money licence.
An opinion is not a law. ESMA issues it under Article 29 of its founding regulation to build consistent supervision, and national regulators carry it out. On September 30, ESMA asked the European Commission to write explicit rules into MiCA that prevent regulated firms from offering services linked to non-compliant stablecoins. If the Commission takes that up, the expectation becomes a legal obligation, on a timetable that does not exist yet.
Three things to watch. First, statements from national regulators such as France's AMF or Germany's BaFin, which set the actual wind-down windows for their firms. Second, platform notices to EEA users about USDT and other dollar stablecoins, since each firm must now show its controls. Third, January 8, 2027, the outside date for any remaining exposure. Our stablecoin guide covers how MiCA classifies these tokens and where the GENIUS Act stands in the US.
