ESMA widens MiCA stablecoin restrictions across crypto services

ESMA has told EU-authorised crypto-asset service providers to stop offering services tied to stablecoins that do not meet MiCA requirements, extending the supervisory focus beyond whether a token is formally listed or promoted. The European markets regulator’s 8 October opinion covers services including trading, exchange, transfers and custody, and gives national supervisors up to three months to require remediation of existing exposures. It replaces a less settled supervisory position with a broader expectation that firms must not keep these tokens accessible to EU clients.

In its 8 October opinion on non-MiCA-compliant asset-referenced and e-money tokens, ESMA says its guidance complements earlier material. The opinion applies to asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, the two categories commonly grouped as stablecoins under MiCA. It is addressed primarily to national competent authorities, which are expected to assess firms in their jurisdictions and promote consistent supervision across the EU.

How does the new position differ from the earlier guidance?

It shifts the test from whether a particular service amounts to an offer or admission to trading toward whether the full set of services keeps a non-compliant token available to clients. ESMA says the expectation applies even when an individual service does not itself constitute an offer to the public or admission to trading. Supervisors should examine services alone and in combination, including platforms, order execution, exchange, advice, transfers, custody and portfolio management.

That is broader than the January 2025 guidance, which left room for case-by-case assessments of some services where they did not involve promoting or advertising the token. Cinco Días’ report on the new opinion described how platforms and supervisors had interpreted those boundaries differently. The shift matters for firms that had treated continued access to a token as distinct from offering it to the public.

What can platforms do with customers’ existing holdings?

They may provide limited, temporary services needed to protect clients and wind down existing positions. ESMA lists liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer and safekeeping; it says these arrangements must not enable new purchases, promotion, trading or active distribution. National supervisors can require remaining legacy exposures to be addressed as soon as possible and no later than three months after publication, while keeping any residual services time-limited and closely supervised.

That leaves a narrow route for customers to exit or move holdings, while ending the ability to acquire more through authorised providers. ESMA says warnings and client acknowledgements are not an adequate substitute for issuer-level safeguards. Its reasoning is that MiCA’s protections—such as reserve, governance, disclosure and redemption requirements where applicable—cannot be replicated by a platform’s own risk controls or disclosures.

The practical trade-off is between uniform access to MiCA’s protections and continuity for clients holding tokens that fall outside them. The opinion does not say that every service involving a token is itself an offer or admission to trading; instead, it frames continued access through authorised CASPs as inconsistent with their duties to clients and MiCA’s aims. The next signals are how national authorities apply the three-month deadline, what wind-down arrangements they permit, and whether their decisions narrow or preserve differences in supervision across member states.

Sources and documents

• 8 October opinion on non-MiCA-compliant asset-referenced and e-money tokens — esma.europa.eu
• Cinco Días’ report on the new opinion — cincodias.elpais.com