ESMA gives EU crypto platforms 3 months to drop non-MiCA stablecoins such as USDT

The guidance said authorized crypto firms must stop offering services that let EU customers buy, trade, swap or otherwise increase their holdings of affected stablecoins.

The rules cover exchange services, trade execution, transfers, custody, administration, advice and portfolio management.

National regulators should require any remaining customer holdings to be resolved “as soon as possible, and no later than three months” after the opinion’s publication, ESMA said. That places the deadline at Jan. 8, 2027.

In the meantime, platforms may provide limited services to resolve existing holdings. These can include selling, converting, withdrawing, transferring or safekeeping tokens, but not purchases, promotion, trading or continued market availability.

EU users who keep USDT on an exchange will have to follow that platform’s instructions. Some may be able to sell or withdraw it during the wind-down period; others may face an earlier cutoff.

ESMA said keeping noncompliant stablecoins available through authorized platforms would weaken the reserve, redemption, governance and disclosure rules MiCA imposes on authorized issuers.

The opinion is directed at national regulators, who will decide how individual platforms handle their remaining client balances within the three-month outer limit.