Popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced its plans to align with European digital currency regulations by preparing to delist five stablecoins, including Tether’s USDt. The full delisting of USDt USDTUSD will take place on March 31, as a part of the company’s compliance with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), as stated in an official announcement by the exchange.
Besides USDT, Kraken will also gradually withdraw support for PayPal USD (PYUSD), Tether EURt (EURT), TrueUSD (TUSD), and TerraClassicUSD (UST) in the European market. The exchange states that these changes are aimed at ensuring long-term compliance and continuing to offer exceptional trading experiences to European clients.
In accordance with the guidelines set by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Kraken plans a phased delisting process. Initially, by February 13, margin pairs involving the affected assets will be set to “reduce-only” for European Economic Area (EEA) clients. Consequently, EEA users will only be able to reduce or completely close out existing margin positions.
By February 27, the impacted tokens will be put in a “sell-only” mode, preventing EEA clients from generating deposit addresses for tokens like USDT, while still allowing trading. On March 24, Kraken will cease all spot trading for the affected assets, closing all open orders and conversions into other coins or fiat currencies.
Kraken has specified that these delistings will only impact clients in the EEA, including 30 countries such as Austria, Cyprus, Czechia, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and others. The move follows similar actions by Crypto.com and Coinbase, underlining the increasing compliance requirements within the European Union.
