Regulations

Story: Only 3 Out of 50 Stablecoins Meet MiCA Standards in Europe

By Jean-Luc Maracon

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MiCA on Paper, Emptiness in Reality. The MiCA regulation—Markets in Crypto-Assets—sets strict rules: mandatory reserves, reimbursement…

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The Dollar Dominates, Euro at 0.25%. Dollar stablecoins dominate the global market. Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC account for the…

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What This Means for European Users. In practical terms, a user in France or Germany who wants to use a MiCA-compliant stablecoin has…

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Three. Out of fifty. This is the stark outcome of the MiCA regulation for stablecoins in Europe—a regulation in effect since late 2024 that was theoretically supposed to clean up…

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The MiCA regulation—Markets in Crypto-Assets—sets strict rules: mandatory reserves, reimbursement guarantees for holders, capital requirements, anti-money laundering measures.

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On the exchange side, GOin and Coinhouse have obtained the payment institution license issued by the ACPR, the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority.

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Dollar stablecoins dominate the global market. Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC account for the bulk of volumes. Euro-denominated stablecoins, on the other hand, represent barely 0.

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It's changing quickly, but not quickly enough yet.

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See also: Uniswap Earn allows users to deposit USDC, ETH, and USDT on Morpho

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Stablecoins, in general, serve this purpose: enabling fast, low-cost payments without suffering the violent fluctuations of Bitcoin or Ethereum.

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Read also: Uniswap Earn Lets Users Put USDC, ETH and USDT Into $11.79B Morpho Network

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MiCA compliance is costly. Audits, immobilized reserves, legal teams, regular reporting—the small issuers don't necessarily have the resources for all this.

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In practical terms, a user in France or Germany who wants to use a MiCA-compliant stablecoin has very few choices. The USDC, EURC, USDG. That's about it in large volumes.

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Meanwhile, Tether's USDT—by far the most used stablecoin in the world—is not MiCA-compliant. No public details on an ongoing application, no clear timeline.

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Related reading: Tether sees its net profit fall to $1.5 billion as excess reserves decrease

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