Revolut to Delist USDT for European Users as MiCA Rules Reshape Stablecoin Access

• Revolut will stop supporting USDT in eligible European user accounts based on MiCA regulations of the European Union.
• Users may purchase USDT up until July 6 but have to dispose of it by August 31.

Revolut is set to phase out USDT support for eligible European clients in line with the European Union’s MiCA regulations. Revolut has informed affected users via email that it will gradually stop supporting USDT in the coming months. Users can keep purchasing USDT until July 6, after which Revolut will not accept any more purchases of USDT.

The clients still have the option to continue trading their tokens and moving them to compatible third-party wallets until August 31st. Revolut recommended that its clients check their token balance before the deadline. The company will convert any leftover balance to each user’s home currency based on the market value.

The company confirmed the update via a July 3 post on X, directing people to a DefiLlama dashboard of authorized products. Revolut became a company worth $75 billion, having served over 75 million users. The company assured that the new policy only applies to customers who were notified about delisting. Revolut stated that the countries in which USDT is supported will not be affected by the decision.

MiCA Regulation Brings Change

Revolut attributed its decision to the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation of the European Union, or simply MiCA. This framework mandates that stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers obtain licenses, manage reserves, disclose information, and undergo supervision. All before providing their services in the European Union. USDT failed to get approval from the MiCA regulatory framework. Therefore, many cryptocurrency companies restricted access for Europeans starting from July 1st.

As noted by the chief executive officer of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, before MiCA’s enactment, reserve requirements proposed within the legislation were unsuitable for the working model of the biggest stablecoin in the world. Moreover, he expressed fears that certain reserve compositions and liquidity requirements could pose problems for the issuers of stablecoins in the MiCA regime. However, European service providers keep amending their products in order to align with the new regulatory requirements.

Expanding Regulatory Oversight

The decision made by Revolut is one of the steps in the overall regulatory progress that influences Tether outside the EU borders. Recently, Tether suspended transactions on USDT stored on 131 wallets within the TRON blockchain following an expanded set of sanctions on ISIS-K-affiliated cryptocurrency wallet addresses enacted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Treasury. Thus, 134 addresses were included in the sanctions list, including 131 TRON wallets and three Monero wallets linked to the sanctioned entity. Although the sanctions do not have anything to do with MiCA implementation, both events demonstrate expanding regulatory oversight within cryptocurrency markets.

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