Tether stablecoin USDT and its place in Europe

Tether started as Realcoin and took its current name the same year, according to Wikipedia. Next to the dollar token it issues a gold-backed token, Tether Gold, whose gold Tether says sits in a vault in Switzerland, as tokenized gold explains. Tether has invested in LemFi to support planned USDT settlement for remittances and in Speed, which combines Lightning payments with stablecoin settlement. Stablecoin payments shows how banks and payment firms use such tokens, and stablecoin settlement covers settlement between institutions.

ESMA, the EU securities regulator, told national supervisors to make crypto service providers stop offering stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA, and set a deadline at the end of the first quarter of 2025; the ESMA guidance names no token, and press coverage such as Cointelegraph read it as aimed at USDT. Tether also wound down its euro token: it ceased EUR₮ redemptions on all supported blockchains, with CEO Paolo Ardoino saying Tether chose to prioritize other initiatives and that "Hadron by Tether will remain our priority in the region".

Tether now invests in firms that issue euro tokens. It invested in Quantoz Payments to support the launch of EURQ and USDQ, e-money tokens designed to be MiCAR-compliant, and in StablR, which holds an e-money license from Malta's regulator for its EURR and USDR. Both use Hadron, Tether's platform for issuing and managing tokenized assets.

Tether publishes quarterly attestation reports on its reserves, signed off by BDO Italia, and in 2021 the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tether 41 million US dollars for misleading statements about those reserves, as Wikipedia records. In the US, Tether announced USA₮, a separate dollar stablecoin planned under US regulation. The knowledge hub explains what stablecoins are backed by.

Stablecoins, tokenized funds, custody and payments are the program of Capital & Code in Frankfurt, hosted by the euro stablecoin issuer AllUnity, with Finance Loop as media partner. The Digital Euro Association, a strategic partner of Finance Loop, counts Raiffeisen Bank International, Union Investment, Ripple and BitGo among its members.

Tether has no MiCA authorization for USDT. ESMA told supervisors to make crypto service providers stop offering non-compliant stablecoins, so regulated EU platforms no longer sell USDT, while holders can still keep or withdraw it.

Tether says each USD₮ is backed by its reserves. Quarterly attestation reports on those reserves are signed off by BDO Italia.

Tether stopped redeeming EUR₮. It invests instead in Quantoz, issuer of EURQ, and in StablR, issuer of EURR, both built on Tether's Hadron platform.