Latest news in the world of crypto: yesterday, USDT, Tether’s stablecoin, celebrated its 10th anniversary.
However, this is not the most important news regarding USDT released this weekend.
Compliance with MiCA: latest news for the stablecoin USDT (Tether)
The European Union’s new crypto regulation, known as MiCA, comes into force.
Indeed, the rules regarding stablecoins on EU markets already came into force at the end of June, but there is still until December to comply with them.
USDT is the first stablecoin in the world and the most widely used in Europe.
The new European regulation recognizes as true stable coins guaranteed by fiat currencies only those issued by entities officially and legally recognized as authorized issuers of electronic money, that is to say fiat money in digital format.
Currently, Tether, the issuer of USDT, is not yet recognized by the EU as an issuer of electronic money.
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The solution
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The important news, confirmed by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, is that Tether is working on a solution that could be ready by November, more than a month before the December 30 deadline.
It is worth remembering that if USDT was not MiCA compliant after December 30, it should be delisted from exchanges for all users residing in EU countries.
Although it remains decidedly unlikely that exchanges will allow European citizens to be deprived of the ability to legally offer USDT transactions, from a theoretical point of view this option remains in reality entirely possible.
For this reason, Tether is seeking a solution that would allow USDT to comply with MiCA so that it can continue to be offered by exchanges to EU residents.
The solution must be finalized by December 30, but Ardoino confirmed that it could be ready as early as November.
The uncertainty
The problem is that we don’t yet know precisely what type of solution it is.
Ardoino himself limited himself to stating that the details would be revealed later.
It will still be a new technological solution specifically designed for the European market, i.e. to adapt USDT to the new regulatory landscape in the region.
Tether said certain aspects of MiCA make it more complex to operate licensed stablecoins in the EU, also introducing new potential risks to both local banking infrastructure and the stablecoins themselves.
One of the issues, raised by Tether itself, is the risk that the new regulations will bring systemic risks to both banks and digital assets, making them vulnerable to problems due to, for example, mass withdrawals , as in the famous case of Silicon. Valley Bank last year.
It is worth noting, however, that the company praised the European regulator for finally creating a clear and structured regulatory environment, while highlighting how the use cases for stablecoins in Europe are very different from those in emerging markets and developing countries where USDT is even present. more popular.
10 years of Tether and the latest news on the USDT stablecoin
On October 6, 2014, USDT was born.
At the time, Ethereum didn’t even exist yet, as its blockchain was created the following year, and indeed the USDT token was initially launched on a Bitcoin sidechain called Omni.
Even today, of the more than 119 billion USDT in circulation, there are almost 900 million on the old Omni, even if initially, in 2014, only less than 300,000 had been issued.
Already in 2015, they exceeded 500,000, then one million in 2016.
The first boom came with the speculative bubble in crypto markets in 2017, which took the market capitalization of USDT above $1 billion, growing x1000 in just under two years.
It is worth remembering, however, that the price of USDT has always remained around $1, so only usage has increased significantly, not value.
The following year, the 2.5 billion mark was also exceeded, only to fall below the 2 billion mark during the bear market.
The second major boom occurred from 2019, when 4 billion was exceeded, and continued until 2022, when 80 billion was reached.
During the bear market of 2022, the market capitalization of USDT fell below $70 billion, only to grow again in 2023 and first exceed $90 billion, then even $100 billion in 2024. It now hovers around 120 billion dollars.
