Europe’s crackdown on Tether’s USDT is entering a new phase.
When Revolut told European users it would delist USDT after August 31, it joined a long line of European platforms restricting access to the world’s largest stablecoin as firms adapt to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
MICA has stablecoin regulations gradually from 2024, and the EU-wide transition period ended on July 1, putting more pressure on platforms to drop tokens that don’t meet the rules.
Yet according to Artemis Analytics, Tether’s squeeze from a major market shows little sign of ushering in a major shift in USDT activity. Alex Wesley, Research and Information, tells the magazine:
“The data do not indicate any noticeable changes in USDT supply or demand directly attributable to MiCA taking effect in Europe… MiCA did not trigger a large space or chain migration.”
So why is demand for Tether holding up so well?
Stablecoins become financial infrastructure
One reason USDT demand has proven resilient is that dollar stablecoins are being used more than trading or saving in other parts of the world.
For example, in Argentina, a country long stuffed with dollars and hoarding assets outside the traditional financial system, stablecoins have grown despite restrictions on activity. to access The real US dollar has been easy.
USDT supply share by chain at MiCA milestones. Source: Artemis.
Lemon, an Argentinian crypto and financial services platform, to process The total amount in 2025 is $9.3 billion, up 60% from the previous year. Transacting users grew by 70% to nearly 1.8 million and stablecoin volume grew by 45% year over year.
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This suggests that stablecoins are doing more than just filling the void created by restrictions on access to the dollar; They are becoming part of how people move and spend money.
Ignacio Gimenez, Lemon’s business and planning manager, told the magazine:
“The role of USDT and other dollar stablecoins is evolving. What we’re seeing is a shift from stablecoins as a store of value to stablecoins as financial infrastructure.”
He says stablecoin activity is “increasingly driven by payments, cross-border transfers and global financial services rather than just savings,” adding that Argentine users can pay in Brazil via PIX using pesos, receive dollars or euros from abroad and deposit them as USDC, or transfer between bank dollars and digital dollar balances.
This makes it difficult to gauge demand for stablecoins simply by looking at which tokens are available on regulated exchanges.
MiCA is changing the European gateway
Lemon’s experience highlights a shift in user behavior in one of Latin America’s largest economies, and there are signs that emerging markets are starting to follow the trend.
Artemis data shows that the number of daily users of the Binance smart chain increased from about 318,000 in June 2024 to 1.56 million by July 2026, while the number of daily users of Tron increased by 44% to about 908,000. These chains are preferred by everyday stablecoin users for their low fees. Wesley said:
“It looks like global and emerging market usage is expanding rather than a Europe-specific migration, and there is no clear MiCA-time break in the chain data.”
This does not mean that MiCA is irrelevant: it is certainly changing what stablecoins regulated European platforms can offer and reshaping the stablecoin market within the bloc.
USDT daily active address by chain at MiCA milestones. Source: Artemis.
Maksim Sakharov, CEO and co-founder of WeFi, a crypto financial infrastructure company, said the regulation is primarily changing how users access dollar stablecoins, rather than removing the underlying demand, whether for trading, payments or cross-border transfers. He told the magazine:
“Users don’t choose a stablecoin because it’s available on a regulated platform. They choose it because adversaries use it, the liquidity is deep and it works in many markets.”
For some platforms, the shift began before the MICA deadline. OKX Europe’s Chief Executive, Erald Ghose, said OKX hasn’t offered USDT to European users for nearly two years, so the latest MiCA deadline didn’t make much of a material difference.
Europe has an alternative dollar problem
Perhaps the big question in Europe is what European users will adopt instead. Dollar-denominated stablecoins have a strong advantage as the crypto market has always considered the greenback as its primary benchmark.
Chain Pre vs Post MiCA by USDT Transfer Volume Share. Source: Artemis.
While Ghose doesn’t expect a global shift anytime soon, he says institutional interest in euro-denominated stablecoins is growing. He said:
“What we are seeing from institutional players is interest in creating more EUR-denominated stablecoins, which is worth watching as it develops.”
For retail users, euro-denominated stablecoins can make practical sense by removing additional friction from transactions such as currency conversion. But while MiCA can determine which products are available through regulated European gateways, it cannot change the role of the dollar in the global crypto market.
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