MiCA imposes fines of up to one billion euros on exchanges that fail to comply with its rules

Many companies are still not clear how to apply the rules for stablecoins that will come into force with MiCA this June 30.

Exchanges that fail to comply with MiCA rules on stablecoins would pay million-dollar fines. Image: Dall-E/ChatGPT.

So far only Binance, OKX and Kraken have presented the measures they will take to comply with MiCA.

USDT, the main stablecoin in dollars, will leave Europe after failing to comply with the regulations.

There are 15 days left until the regulations for stablecoins established within the Regulation for the Cryptoasset Market (MiCA) come into force in the European Union (EU), and so far there are few exchanges in the sector that have announced the measures they will take for the compliance.  

Juuso Roinevirta, head of Product and Growth at Membrane Finance, drew attention to this issue in X, pointing out the fines that can be applied with the Regulation to platforms that sell stable currencies that are not registered in the region.  

The expert shared a table indicating the economic sanctions that exchanges that do not comply with this requirement could receive. Their calculations suggest that the fines would total up to one billion euros, and that is only taking into account 10 of the platforms that operate in the eurozone and that currently process transactions with stablecoins pegged to the dollar.   

“If all the other VASPs (crypto asset service providers) are added, MiCA could become one of the biggest windfalls for EU Member States in 2024,” says Roinevirta. 

One billion euros add up to the fines for not complying with MiCA. Font in X