The world's largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), is set to be delisted in the EU on December 30th, 2024, as it is not compliant under the new MiCa regulation.
Tether's market cap stands at about $139.7 billion, roughly 13% of all Swiss Franc in existence and larger than the entire valuation of Nike or UPS. In Argentina, 80% of all tech contractors are paid in USDT and for institutional investors USDT has always been the go-to-'currency' to swap digital asset into USD safely and quickly. Also, Tether is dwarfing its direct competitor Circle, whose stablecoin USDC is 4x smaller.
Hence, USDT is very large. So why is it being outlawed?
The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, aims to bring greater transparency and consumer protection to the crypto market. MiCA requires all crypto-asset issuers, including stablecoin providers like Tether, to secure appropriate licenses to operate within the EU