Revolut is dropping Tether’s USDT for EU users. The delisting hits August 31, and it’s happening because Tether decided not to seek authorization under Europe’s MiCA framework.
Customers can still buy USDT until July 6. New deposits stop July 30. After August 31, any leftover USDT gets converted to fiat automatically.
Revolut confirmed the change in a July 3 post on X, pointing users to a DeFiLlama dashboard of MiCA-licensed alternatives. The fintech serves 75 million customers and carries a $75 billion valuation.
MiCA fully kicked in on July 1. The register of licensed providers now lists 280 firms. Tether’s not on it. This mirrors their absence from earlier approval rounds.
The rules require stablecoin issuers to hold at least 60% of reserves as bank deposits. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says that creates liquidity risks. Tether already retired its euro stablecoin EURT in November 2024 rather than comply.
Tether also has a long-standing audit problem. It’s been promising a full audit since 2017 and still hasn’t delivered one. Consumers’ Research recently called them out for it. The firm relies on quarterly attestations instead, arguing major accounting firms avoid crypto clients after exchange failures and hacks.
The big winner here is Circle’s USDC. It holds MiCA authorization and keeps its EU listings. USDC sits at $73 billion market cap — still less than half of USDT’s $184 billion. Tether is trading regulated European access for global scale.
Early Revolut investor Max Karpis summed it up: “Compliance hits again.”
