Uncertainty about USDT compliance in the EU

The change in legal leadership at Tether occurs amid the implementation of the MiCA rules in Europe, which officially came into effect on December 30.

The MiCA regulations have left stablecoin issuers like Tether in limbo, as the regulations do not clearly indicate whether the US dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether

USDT

tickers down

€0.9696

complies with the new crypto framework for the European Union.

“No regulator has explicitly stated that USDT is non-compliant, but that doesn’t mean it is,” said Juan Ignacio Ibañez, a member of the MiCA Crypto Alliance Technical Committee, to Cointelegraph in a note on December 29.

In October 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) — a key supervisor of MiCA compliance — declined to tell Cointelegraph whether it considered USDT to be a restricted stablecoin under the MiCA rules.

A spokesperson for ESMA then said that the regulator was working with market participants and other key players to address issues related to stablecoins raised in the MiCA rules.