What will happen to USDT in Europe from the beginning of 2025: possible scenarios from representatives of MiCA Crypto Alliance

USDT is the largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency industry and, at the same time, the main bridge between the world of fiat currencies and digital assets. However, when large investors want to get involved with crypto, they interact with the Tether company, pay them large sums and receive the corresponding equivalent of tokens based on the chosen network such as Ethereum, Tron or Solana.

In December 2024, the total capitalization of all stablecoins in the niche reached $200 billion for the first time. Of this, USDT accounted for $139 billion, or almost 70 percent of the total.

Second place goes to Circle’s USDC with 40 billion or 20 percent.

And since USDT plays a huge role in the entire industry, the possible delisting of the asset on popular trading platforms causes fear among investors. However, this could become another “black swan” for the crypto niche and lead to unknown consequences.

At the very least, the market could become much more volatile, as USDT provides liquidity in trading popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and SOL. In such conditions, their rates will change faster and more significantly, which is unlikely to benefit the stability of the sector.

Why USDT was removed from the crypto exchange Coinbase

In general, the reason for crypto investors’ concerns about the future of USDT was the delisting of the stablecoin from Coinbase Europe, Coinbase Germany and Coinbase Custody in mid-December. At that time, platform representatives called the asset one that does not meet the requirements of MiCA. Therefore, in fact, they decided to get rid of it in order to avoid possible problems with regulators.

Here is a remark from the company representatives, which they accompanied this news with two weeks ago.

As a reminder, due to the new European Cryptocurrency Asset Regulation (MiCA), Coinbase will be imposing restrictions on stablecoin services that do not comply with MiCA for retail customers of Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Germany GmbH. The restrictions will come into effect on December 13, 2024, at 23:59 CET.

Based on current information, we expect that we will have to restrict services for the following assets: USDT, PAX, PYUSD, GUSD, GYEN, and DAI (collectively, “MiCA-restricted assets”). We regularly review the list of assets available to our clients on the platform to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. In the future, the company will consider resuming support for MiCA-compliant stablecoins.

Please note that USDC and EURC are MiCA compliant and will continue to be traded on the Coinbase platform.

It is important to note that USDT was the second most popular crypto asset on Coinbase, accounting for 12.7 percent of the total trading volume on the platform, meaning this was not an easy decision for management.

Tether representatives were predictably unhappy with the move, noting that they disagreed “with hasty moves by certain exchanges that may take premature positions either for their own benefit given their investments in competitors or due to a superficial analysis of the situation.”

Here’s an archived quote from USDT issuer staff, as reported by Cointelegraph .

Tether is confident that we can successfully navigate these changes to further advance financial inclusion and innovation, especially in regions with limited or inefficient access to traditional financial systems.

Potential USDT delisting – is it worth waiting for?

And while Coinbase has called USDT a token that does not comply with the new European regulations, authorities have not shared such definitions. Here is a response from Juan Ignacio Ibañez, a member of the MiCA Crypto Alliance technical committee.

No regulator has yet directly stated that USDT does not comply with the new requirements. However, this does not mean that the token fits into the concept of regulation.

The expert also recalled that other popular crypto exchanges such as Binance, OKX, Bybit and Crypto-com continue to conduct transactions with the stablecoin . However, in general, they have no reason to rush and conduct a premature delisting of USDT. The expert continues.

Coinbase’s decision may reflect a proactive approach to avoid the risks of last-minute compliance with new rules or regulatory uncertainty.

Taking this into account, the analyst believes that the prospect of USDT delisting on other popular platforms on December 30 remains . Here is his quote.

We should focus on the 30th. The question is whether all exchanges will immediately delist USDT, do it gradually, or some will take a wait-and-see attitude, awaiting clarification from regulators.

Ibáñez adds that the latter approach hardly makes sense. Still, trying to wait for additional interpretations from European regulators could result in financial problems – and exchanges are unlikely to go for it.

This means that this can be considered an argument in favor of the fact that delisting will not happen .

However, this did not stop some well-known personalities in the crypto world from claiming that USDT will still be removed from trading platforms on Monday. Here is one such tweet, which has received more than 660 thousand views.

Although in essence we are talking exclusively about speculation, and not real facts.

Note that European exchanges are not as large as the operations of traders from the US or Asia. Therefore, if anything happens, USDT will still have a huge number of users in other regions.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino responded to the events. Here is his latest quote from Twitter .

If you look into the backgrounds of the social media users on X who are spreading false claims about USDT, their motive is crystal clear. This is a poorly managed campaign led by our competitors.

It won’t work, just like it didn’t work before.

It is worth noting that the history of the blockchain industry has already seen premature delistings of cryptocurrencies that ultimately led to nothing. For example, in June 2023, the Robinhood trading platform announced the cessation of trading in coins of the Cardano, Polygon, and Solana networks.

In this way, the company’s management responded to statements by SEC representatives who called the listed coins unregistered securities, wanting to avoid possible problems. Moreover, the platform forcibly sold the listed cryptocurrencies of users who did not withdraw them within the specified period.

However, in the end, it didn’t make sense. The coin industry took the SEC to court to stop such attacks. And in mid-November 2024, Robinhood resumed trading SOL and ADA as if nothing had happened.

Maybe the same thing will happen with Coinbase.

Should I Sell USDT?

Tether’s USDT remains one of the pillars of the cryptocurrency, which has survived a lot of information and legal attacks in recent years. This means that the giant at least knows how to act in such situations, ensuring the stability of its own asset .

It is also worth understanding that even in the event of delisting, USDT will still be backed by assets at its core. And the mass withdrawal of stablecoin through Tether to receive real dollars will not create problems for the safety of the token rate.

Here is the USDT chart for the last week. The asset is currently valued at $0.9985.


Major exchanges could have stopped USDT trading in advance, similar to Coinbase, but did not do so. Accordingly, they will either do so closer to December 30, or cooperate with regulators and do not intend to delist altogether.


However, even if Tether’s stablecoin stops trading, the company’s representatives must cope with the mass sales of the token and ensure the stability of its rate. Still, if USDT is untied from the dollar rate, the coin industry will face serious problems, which can hardly be insured against by a banal transfer of USDT to USDC. Therefore, here we rely on Paolo Ardoino and his team.