The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued guidance requiring crypto firms operating under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA) to address client holdings in non-compliant stablecoins within three months of ESMA's October 8 opinion—setting a deadline of approximately January 8, 2027.
According to ESMA's guidance, national regulators should require firms to remediate legacy exposures to non-compliant stablecoins as soon as possible and no later than the three-month deadline. Firms that have not yet achieved compliance may provide narrowly defined services to facilitate an orderly exit from existing positions.
Permitted Exit Services
National regulators may allow non-compliant firms to offer time-limited services for existing holdings, including liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer, and safekeeping of assets. These exit services must be clearly communicated to clients, closely supervised, and cannot enable new acquisitions or continued market promotion.
The availability of these exit services is not automatic. National supervisors retain discretion to determine whether to permit them, meaning customers may not receive the full three-month window to unwind positions depending on their jurisdiction and provider.
Legal Basis and Scope
ESMA's opinion is rooted in Article 66(1) of MiCA, which requires providers to act in clients' best interests. The authority stated that offering MiCA services involving non-compliant stablecoins should create a presumption of incompatibility with this duty, regardless of whether individual services constitute public offerings or admission to trading.
The guidance complements ESMA's January 17, 2025 statement, which had permitted custody and transfer services while restricting trading and other public offerings. ESMA determined that warnings, disclosures, and client acknowledgments cannot adequately mitigate risks created by missing issuer-level safeguards in non-compliant stablecoins.
The opinion does not name specific tokens or issuers but follows guidance from exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken, which have identified certain stablecoins as MiCA-non-compliant. The restriction applies only to access through regulated EU firms and does not constitute a worldwide ban on holding such assets.
