ESMA Sets 3-Month Exit for Non-MiCA Stablecoins, Pulls Custody Into Scope

Licensed EU crypto firms have until early January 2027 to wind down services for stablecoins that fail MiCA, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on Thursday. ESMA set that three-month deadline in an opinion addressed to national supervisors. The opinion covers asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs) that do not meet MiCA’s conditions for a lawful offer or trading in the EU. It names no individual token. Supervisors are told to check whether a firm lets EU clients buy, trade, hold, or add to such tokens. That check spans every service type, from trading platforms and order execution to advice and portfolio management. Firms offering those services should block new purchases by EU clients with technical and contractual controls. ESMA first addressed non-compliant stablecoins in a statement on January 17, 2025. That statement told trading platforms to stop offering them, with sell-only access allowed until the end of March 2025. It also said mere custody and transfer of those tokens could continue. Binance kept to that timeline and delisted nine non-MiCA stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT, for European users on March 31, 2025. After that date, Binance users could only sell those stablecoins through its Convert tool. Thursday’s opinion brings custody and transfers into scope. Both now sit on the list of services supervisors should review. The opinion also rejects investor warnings as a fix. The 2025 statement had asked firms to run awareness campaigns for EU investors. ESMA now says warnings, disclosures and client acknowledgments would not address its concerns. ESMA’s 2025 guidance turned on whether a service amounted to a public offer of the token. Thursday’s opinion keeps that public offer analysis and adds a second basis. It cites the MiCA duty for licensed firms to act honestly, fairly and professionally in their clients’ best interests. Serving a non-compliant token should be presumed to breach that duty, ESMA said. Unlicensed firms hit an earlier cutoff this year. On June 23, ESMA told those unlicensed providers to stop onboarding new EU clients ahead of the July 1 end of MiCA’s transition period. By July 21, fewer than 300 of the more than 3,000 firms serving EU crypto clients held a license, according to CASP Tracker. Thursday’s opinion targets the firms that made the cut. Those not yet in line may keep limited exit services running to avoid harming c