ESMA sets three-month deadline for legacy stablecoin exposures

ESMA has told national supervisors to require crypto firms to clear legacy exposure to stablecoins that do not meet the EU’s MiCA requirements within three months, while restricting any interim service to orderly client exits. The European Securities and Markets Authority’s 8 October opinion says authorised crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) should not provide services involving those tokens to EU clients. The ESMA announcement says the deadline applies when national competent authorities identify remaining pre-existing exposures.

The three-month period runs from publication of the opinion, putting the outer deadline at 8 January 2027. ESMA’s document is supervisory guidance addressed primarily to national competent authorities; it asks them to assess firms in their jurisdictions and ensure compliance. It does not create a new MiCA rule through legislation.

Which stablecoins and services fall within the opinion?

The opinion covers asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs) for which the conditions for a lawful offer to the public or admission to trading in the EU under MiCA Titles III or IV are not met. ESMA’s definition includes applicable exemptions and transitional arrangements, so a token’s status depends on whether those legal conditions are satisfied.

The scope reaches across MiCA services under Title V. ESMA lists trading-platform operation, exchange, order execution, order reception and transmission, placing, advice, transfers, custody and portfolio management. Supervisors should consider whether those services, alone or together, let EU clients acquire, trade, exchange, subscribe for, increase exposure to, or otherwise access or maintain the tokens.

That breadth matters because ESMA’s position does not depend on whether each service, viewed separately, legally constitutes an offer to the public or admission to trading. In the opinion, the regulator says continued service can conflict with CASPs’ obligations under Article 66(1) of MiCA to act honestly, fairly and professionally in clients’ best interests. ESMA’s reasoning is that non-compliant tokens lack issuer-level safeguards required by MiCA, and that a CASP cannot adequately identify, manage or mitigate the risks created by those missing safeguards.

What can platforms do while clients exit?

National supervisors may allow narrowly limited residual services needed to avoid client detriment and wind down existing positions. ESMA lists liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer and safekeeping. These arrangements must be time-limited, communicated to clients and closely supervised; they cannot support new acquisitions, promotion, trading, active distribution or continued market availability.

For legacy exposures, ESMA says supervisors should require remediation as soon as possible and no later than three months after publication. Its announcement describes the same boundary: any continued service must be limited to activities necessary for liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer or safekeeping, and remain risk-based and closely supervised. The opinion does not promise that every firm will use the full period; supervisors are directed to seek remediation as soon as possible.

What changed from ESMA’s earlier guidance?

The new opinion extends the supervisory test beyond whether a service amounts to an unlawful public offer. ESMA says the expectation applies to services that maintain or facilitate availability to EU clients, even where a service does not itself meet that legal definition. The opinion complements earlier guidance rather than replacing MiCA’s text.

Cinco Días’ report on the opinion describes how differing interpretations of earlier guidance had left some firms continuing to offer non-compliant tokens. ESMA’s new approach gives supervisors a broader basis to assess connected services, including custody or transfers, while preserving only a supervised route for clients to exit existing holdings.

References

• ESMA announcement — esma.europa.eu
• Cinco Días’ report on the opinion — cincodias.elpais.com