The European Securities and Markets Authority published a supervisory opinion on October 8 asking national regulators to resolve remaining client exposures to non-compliant stablecoins as soon as possible. It sets an outer limit of three months after the opinion's publication for addressing those legacy positions.
The announcement concerns crypto-asset service providers authorised under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. It covers services for EU clients involving asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens that do not meet MiCA's applicable requirements.
The scope extends beyond trading
ESMA lists the full range of MiCA services, including exchange, order execution, transfers, custody, advice and portfolio management. National authorities should examine services separately and together when assessing whether clients can acquire, increase or maintain exposure to non-compliant tokens.
The five-page opinion, reference ESMA75-113276571-1742, calls for controls across technology, contracts and organisational processes. Preventing additional acquisitions is part of that expectation. Warnings and client acknowledgements alone do not satisfy the position ESMA sets out.
Existing holdings have a narrow exit path
Authorities may permit residual services needed to wind down existing holdings. The document identifies liquidation, conversion, withdrawal, transfer and safekeeping, while excluding fresh acquisitions, promotion and active distribution. Those arrangements must be limited in duration, explained to clients and closely supervised.
The three-month ceiling applies to remediation of remaining legacy exposures. Continued services during that process have the restricted purpose described above; the opinion gives no general three-month permission to continue normal access.
This is an opinion directed primarily at national supervisors to align their practices. It complements earlier guidance without amending MiCA or declaring that every service automatically constitutes a public token offer. ESMA's separate September 30 MiCA review response proposed changes for DeFi gateways; this opinion addresses supervision under the existing framework. Neither the announcement nor the opinion names USDT or gives a token-by-token compliance finding. The concrete development is the broader supervisory scope and the timetable for resolving existing positions, with implementation handled through national authorities.