On 14 October, the European Banking Authority classified USDC as the first “significant” e-money token in the European Union under MiCA, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The label sounds like a sharp tightening, but the decision writes no new rules. It reassigns which supervisor watches which part of the business, and it takes effect from a fixed date: 12 November 2026.

USDC, issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, is one of 45 e-money tokens that issuers have notified across the bloc. It is the first of them to reach the significant tier. The EBA makes that call under MiCA Articles 43 and 56, applying the indicators in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1506, and it must reassess the classification at least once a year.

The significance tier exists for tokens whose scale could carry stability risk, and it is where MiCA concentrates direct EU-level oversight. The EBA has not published the specific figures behind the decision, only that USDC met the criteria set out in the delegated regulation and its own decision EBA/DC/558. That makes the announcement a supervisory finding rather than a market verdict.

What moves, and what stays

From 12 November, the EBA takes direct responsibility for USDC’s own funds, its reserve of assets, its liquidity requirements, and its recovery and redemption plans. The French prudential supervisor, the ACPR, keeps the rest: governance, qualifying holdings, fit-and-proper assessments, outsourcing and conflicts of interest. This split is the dual-supervision model set out in MiCA Article 117. Prudential and stability questions go to the EBA, while conduct and structural oversight stay with the national authority.

A cross-border arrangement

The handoff is cross-border because Circle runs USDC on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States the token is issued by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. To support supervision across the two regimes, the EBA has signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services covering cooperation and information sharing.

What the label does not change

The part most likely to be misread is what the classification leaves alone. USDC was already among the 45 notified e-money tokens before the announcement, so the move creates no new reserve, redemption or capital standards. A holder redeeming USDC one-for-one in dollars sees no change to that mechanism. The decision escalates supervision of an issuer that was already compliant, which runs in the opposite direction from the enforcement the bloc has aimed at non-compliant stablecoin issuers, where MiCA deadlines have been used to push products out rather than bring them into closer oversight.

For anyone tracking the EU stablecoin market, the concrete next step is the 12 November handover. After that, the EBA’s annual review can reclassify USDC or add other large e-money tokens to the same tier. The decision is best read as a supervisory sorting of an already-licensed issuer, not a change to what USDC must hold or how it must redeem.

Source: BlockchainReporter.