Kraken Says No Plans to Delist Tether’s USDT Stablecoin in Europe

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Tanzeel Akhtar

Journalist

Tanzeel Akhtar

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Tanzeel Akhtar has been covering the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector since 2015. She has written for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine and Bitcoin.com.

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May 20, 2024 00:01 EDT

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Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken reassured users it has no plans to delist Tether stablecoin USDT in Europe and will continue to follow all legal requirements.

In an announcement on social media, Kraken’s global head of asset growth and management, Mark Greenberg addressed a recent report about the exchange “actively reviewing” and potentially delisting USDT from the European market.

Greenberg said, that European clients value access to USDT and the firm continues to look at all options to offer USDT under the upcoming regime.

Let's be clear: @krakenfx continues to list USDT in Europe and we have no plans to delist at this time.

We know our European clients value access to USDT and we continue to look at all options to offer USDT under the upcoming regime.

We will of course follow all legal…

— Mark Greenberg (@marklg) May 18, 2024

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) takes effect later this year and the new regulations focus on stablecoins, which are crypto assets promising a stable value against currencies.

SEC’s Lawsuit Against Kraken

In November 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated a lawsuit against Kraken. The SEC alleged it had been operating an unregistered securities trading platform. This suit came months after settling charges over Kraken’s former staking service.

In February 2024, Kraken filed to dismiss the lawsuit, contending that it relied solely on a registration-based argument regarding Kraken’s operation as an unlicensed securities entity. Kraken argued that cryptocurrencies listed as SEC-compliant should be treated like commodities and not securities.

However, now Kraken has escalated its position, urging the court to dismiss the claims to avoid a “significant reordering” of the US financial regulatory structure, according to court filings submitted in the Northern District of California on Thursday.

The SEC filed an opposition to Kraken’s motion to dismiss, asserting that its enforcement action falls within its congressionally granted authority. They emphasize its role in enforcing registration requirements for securities intermediaries. Kraken urged the U.S. court to dismiss the SEC claims against it to avoid a “significant reordering” of the US financial regulatory structure.

There has been discussion over stablecoins Tether’s USDT and USD Coin USDC specifically exploring which one is safer.  In April, USDT’s market capitalization of $104 billion is more than triple USDC’s $32 billion market capitalization. Part of the delta can be attributed to the network effect. USDT launched in 2014, whereas USDC launched in 2018, long after USDT became a popular asset for trading pairs on crypto exchanges. The exchange role in USDT’s dominance is evident in daily trading volume in which USDT trading volume is 7.5 times as high as USDC trading volume.