USDC Overtakes USDT in Euro Stablecoin Trading as MiCA Rules Take Hold
Key Takeaways
- •Kaiko data shows USDC's share of stablecoin trading against the euro has risen to 56%, a sharp increase from 10% in January 2024.
- •Restrictions that major exchanges placed on USDt trading for European Economic Area customers under MiCA's stablecoin provisions accelerated the rotation toward USDC.
- •Despite Tether's global circulating supply remaining roughly 2.5 times larger than USDC's, USDC leads euro-denominated liquidity with order books about 40% deeper than its rival's.
- •Roughly two weeks before the findings, the European Banking Authority designated USDC as the EU's first significant e-money token under MiCA, placing the stablecoin under direct EBA supervision with additional issuer requirements.
- •US implementation of the GENIUS Act could produce a comparable shift favoring Circle, with the OCC's reserve and redemption rules effective January 18, 2027, and platform-level restrictions on unapproved stablecoin issuers beginning in July 2028, while Tether has launched a separate US-focused token, USAT.
Circle's USDC (USDC) has overtaken Tether's USDt (USDT) in stablecoin trading against the euro, as European Union regulations increasingly favor bloc-compliant tokens, according to a new report from crypto analytics firm Kaiko.
USDC now accounts for 56% of stablecoin trading against the euro, up from just 10% in January 2024, according to Kaiko data. The shift accelerated after major exchanges restricted USDT trading for customers in the European Economic Area under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the EU's comprehensive crypto-asset framework whose stablecoin provisions took effect in mid-2024.
Kaiko's data also shows that the USDC-to-euro trading pair has overtaken the USDC-to-USDT pair. Beyond trading activity, USDC has taken the lead in euro-denominated liquidity, with its order books now roughly 40% deeper than its rival's. Even so, Tether remains the larger stablecoin globally, with a circulating supply about 2.5 times that of USDC.
Kaiko described stablecoin-to-euro pairs as a “main on-ramp and off-ramp for European customers,” allowing them to exchange euros for US dollar-pegged stablecoins when entering or exiting cryptocurrency markets. With those gateways increasingly routed through the MiCA-regulated token, euro-pair composition has become one of the clearest visible markers of how the new rules are reshaping European trading.
The findings come about two weeks after the European Banking Authority designated USDC as the EU's first “significant e-money token” under MiCA — a classification that places the stablecoin under direct EBA supervision and subjects its issuer to additional regulatory requirements.
US Stablecoin Rules Could Shift the Balance Between Circle and Tether
Kaiko said the United States is taking a similar approach to stablecoin regulation under the GENIUS Act — the federal stablecoin law signed in July 2025 — raising the possibility that American exchanges could see the same shift in trading activity observed in Europe.
On Oct. 21, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued its first final rule under the law, establishing reserve and redemption requirements for stablecoin issuers under its supervision, effective Jan. 18, 2027. Beginning in July 2028, US platforms will also face restrictions on offering stablecoins from issuers that do not meet the law's approval requirements.
The regulatory changes could favor Circle, which has pursued authorization in both Europe and the United States. Tether, by contrast, has taken a different approach, launching a separate US-focused stablecoin, USAT. With the OCC's reserve and redemption rules not binding until January 2027 and platform-level restrictions following in July 2028, any comparable US rotation would play out over a multi-year timetable — one of the key regulatory dates to watch as stablecoin rules bed in on both sides of the Atlantic.
