At a glance
- The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) authorised under MiCA should cease all services related to stablecoins that do not comply with the regulation, for clients in the EU.
- National regulators should require any remaining client exposures to be remediated as soon as possible and no later than three months after the opinion’s publication, with only wind-down services allowed in the meantime.
ESMA set out the expectations in an opinion published on Thursday, addressed to national competent authorities (NCAs). It covers asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs), MiCA’s two categories of stablecoin, whose issuers do not meet the conditions for a lawful offer or admission to trading in the EU.
Related: What a MiCA-compliant stablecoin is
An ESMA opinion under Article 29 of its founding regulation is a supervisory convergence tool: it tells national regulators how ESMA expects the law to be applied, rather than creating new law.
What the opinion on non-MiCA stablecoins says
The scope is broad. The opinion lists trading platforms, exchange, order execution, placing, reception and transmission of orders, advice, transfers, custody and portfolio management, “whether these services are provided individually or in combination”.
ESMA’s reasoning rests on MiCA‘s Article 66(1), which requires CASPs to act honestly, fairly and professionally in clients’ best interests. Providing services for a non-compliant token, the opinion argues, should create a presumption that a CASP is knowingly exposing clients to risks MiCA’s issuer safeguards are meant to remove.
It also rules out the obvious workaround. Warnings, disclosures or client acknowledgements “would not sufficiently address the concerns” ESMA identified, the document says.
Residual services are allowed only for liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer or safekeeping of existing holdings. They should be time-limited, clearly communicated and closely supervised, and must not support new purchases or promotion.
What it doesn’t say
The opinion does not name any token or issuer. It does not change the European Commission’s Q&A 2404 or ESMA’s January 2025 statement, which dealt with when listing or offering such tokens counts as an offer to the public. ESMA says this opinion applies whether or not a given service amounts to such an offer.
Related: EU crypto rules
No public responses from major issuers or exchanges had been published by the time of writing.
What happens next
NCAs are expected to assess every authorised CASP in their jurisdiction. Counting three months from Thursday’s publication, the remediation deadline falls on 8 Jan 2027. ESMA said it will monitor how national regulators apply the opinion.
Related: MiCA licence tracker
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.