Kraken decided to stop providing services for five stablecoins including USDT because they must follow EU MiCA market rules. The exchange will use different steps to reduce market problems while letting traders adapt.
Through its public disclosure Kraken explained that USDT will no longer trade on its exchange from March 31, 2025. In parallel with removing support Kraken will end its service for European clients with Tether’s flagship stablecoin together with other stablecoins PYUSD, EURT, TUSD and UST.
Kraken’s Compliance Steps For ESMA Stablecoin Delisting Rules
Kraken must make these changes to stay compliant and maintain its high-quality trading services for Europeans into the future as per its public statement. For regulatory compliance Kraken needs to follow ESMA guidelines by taking several steps before removing stablecoins.
On February 13, 2025 Kraken will switch all margin trading tools that involve these affected assets to a reduce-only mode for European Economic Area (EEA) clients to downsize their market positions.
Starting February 27 2025 the trading platform will block new USDT depots but enable trade until full removal. March 24, 2025 marks the day when Kraken stops all spot trading of the affected tokens and ends existing orders.
The exchange system will automatically swap remaining EEA client stablecoins into new MiCA-compliant versions by March 31 2025. Users in 30 EEA countries including Austria and Spain need to adjust to the delisting beginning with Austria, Cyprus, and Czechia. As per Kraken the company made this change at market demand only because EU Member State experts revised MiCA earlier this year.
Major cryptocurrency exchanges adjust their operations to match MiCA requirements when Kraken takes its step. Crypto.com notified users it would cut USDT and nine other stablecoins by January 31 2025 while giving users until Q1 2025 to switch their tokens to MiCA-compliant assets. When users fail to convert their tokens Crypto.com will automatically trade them into qualified stablecoins at their market value.
Coinbase from the United States announced eight stablecoin removals including the USDT in December 2024. The ESMA told EU-based crypto asset service providers to remove tokens from trading steadily to protect market stability. According to regulatory guidelines CASPs need to let customers take profits through selling before totally removing stablecoins from their offerings.
According to the MiCA legislation Kraken and Crypto.com are now leading CASPs in Europe to remove stablecoins before the deadline arrives. All exchanges in Europe will have to align with the EU digital asset framework before its effective dates take effect.
The European crypto industry now has new rules through MiCA which forces exchanges like Kraken to remove their USDT and other stablecoins from service. European traders need to watch how the industry adjusts to new compliance rules to continue their trading work.
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