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Quick overview
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On October 8, 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published an opinion on non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins, setting out what it expects from crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) that still serve them. ESMA's answer leaves little room for interpretation. Authorised CASPs should stop providing any crypto-asset service in relation to these tokens for clients in the European Union.
That goes well beyond the guidance ESMA and the European Commission issued in January 2025. Custody and transfers, which stayed open last time, are now in scope. National competent authorities (NCAs) have three months to require remediation of legacy exposures, which puts the outer limit at January 8, 2027.
Authorised CASPs should not provide crypto-asset services in relation to ARTs or EMTs that do not comply with MiCA. ESMA's reasoning is that these tokens lack the issuer-level safeguards MiCA requires, and that nothing a CASP does on its own can stand in for them. Its conclusion is a presumption that serving such tokens breaches the CASP's duty to clients.
Paragraph 12 of the opinion states it directly: "CASPs should not provide crypto-asset services in relation to ARTs or EMTs that are not compliant with the applicable requirements under MiCA."
The legal hook is Article 66(1) of MiCA, which requires CASPs to act honestly, fairly, and professionally in the best interests of clients. A CASP serving a non-compliant token would, in ESMA's view, be knowingly exposing clients to the very risks that Titles III and IV of MiCA were written to prevent.
The opinion is addressed to NCAs, not to firms directly. ESMA issued it under Article 29(1)(a) of the ESMA Regulation, the instrument it uses to align supervisory practice across Member States. It does not amend MiCA. NCAs are, however, expected to apply it when they assess the CASPs they authorise, and ESMA has said it will monitor how quickly they do.
A non-MiCA-compliant ART or EMT is a stablecoin for which the conditions for a lawful offer to the public or admission to trading in the EU, under Title III or Title IV of MiCA, are not met, including any applicable exemptions or transitional arrangements. The test sits with the issuer: whether it is authorised and meets MiCA's reserve, redemption, governance, and disclosure obligations.
The January 2025 guidance targeted services that amount to an offer to the public or admission to trading, and it left custody and transfers open. The October 2026 opinion drops that test. It applies to every CASP service, and paragraph 14 says the conclusion holds whatever the legal characterisation of each individual service.
On January 17, 2025, the European Commission answered Q&A 2404 and ESMA issued a public statement on the same tokens. The Q&A treated trading platforms that list non-compliant ARTs or EMTs as seeking admission to trading, and said exchange, order transmission, and execution could amount to an offer where the token is promoted. ESMA's statement gave CASPs until the end of Q1 2025 for sell-only services and confirmed that "mere custody and transfer of these crypto-assets should remain possible."
Paragraph 14 of the new opinion closes that door. Its conclusion "does not depend on whether each individual crypto-asset service constitutes, in itself, an offer to the public or admission to trading." For CASPs that kept non-compliant stablecoins in custody wallets and processed on-chain withdrawals as usual, this is the change that matters.
Every crypto-asset service a CASP can be authorised for is in scope. Paragraph 21 asks NCAs to consider whether a CASP's services, individually or in combination, allow EU clients to acquire, trade, exchange, subscribe for, increase their exposure to, or otherwise access or maintain non-MiCA-compliant ARTs or EMTs.
Operating a trading platform, exchanging crypto-assets for funds or other crypto-assets, executing orders, and receiving and transmitting orders are all covered. A trading pair in a non-compliant stablecoin keeps that token liquid in the Union, and so does routing client orders to a venue where it trades.
For most CASPs, this is the biggest operational change. Holding non-compliant stablecoins for clients, or moving them on a client's instruction, now falls within ESMA's expectation. Outside a time-limited wind-down, deposits, withdrawals, and onward transfers of these tokens should no longer run as a standard service.
Advising on non-compliant stablecoins, placing them, or holding them inside managed portfolios is also covered. Firms that use stablecoins for settlement or as a liquidity sleeve within discretionary mandates should bring those positions into their remediation plan.
ESMA rules out warnings, disclosures, and client acknowledgements as a way to keep serving non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins. MiCA's safeguards for ARTs and EMTs, from reserves and redemption rights to governance and disclosure, work as a set, so no single notice can tell a client what they lose when every one of them is missing.
Paragraph 19 adds a second point. Any risk assessment a CASP shares would rest on legal, regulatory, and operational judgements that vary from firm to firm, and clients have no realistic way to evaluate them. The opinion concludes that investor protection and market integrity "can be achieved only by refraining from the provision of services that would facilitate access to, or continued use of, non-compliant ARTs and EMTs."
A risk banner, an updated terms of service, or a click-through acknowledgement will not satisfy an NCA applying this opinion. The fix has to happen in the product and the operating model, not in the client documentation.
CASPs can still provide strictly limited residual services where they are needed for an orderly wind-down and to avoid client detriment. NCAs may allow these for firms that do not yet comply with the opinion, provided the services are time-limited, clearly communicated to clients, and subject to close supervisory scrutiny.
Paragraphs 24 and 27 limit residual services to:
New acquisitions, promotion, trading, active distribution, and any continued market availability of the relevant ARTs or EMTs are all excluded. In short, a client should be able to exit a position, never open or add to one.
NCAs should require remediation of remaining legacy exposures as soon as possible and no later than three months after the opinion's publication on October 8, 2026. That makes January 8, 2027 the outer limit, as ESMA's press release confirms.
Any service still running after that point should be limited to sell-only, conversion, transfer, or withdrawal, and should be time-limited, risk-based, and closely supervised.
The dates that matter for non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins:
The deadline lands roughly six months after the end of MiCA's transitional period for CASPs operating under national regimes, which we cover in MiCA grandfathering explained. ESMA will monitor how each NCA applies the opinion.
ESMA expects CASPs to put in place technical, contractual, and organisational controls that keep non-MiCA-compliant ARTs and EMTs from being available in the Union, including controls that stop EU clients from acquiring or increasing positions. A remediation plan built to that standard usually runs in six steps:
"The opinion moves the question from the order book to the whole client journey. Delisting a trading pair is the easy part. The real work is knowing which tokens still reach you through deposits and transfers, and being able to show your regulator exactly when each control went live."
Lisa Boussard, CAMS, Chief Strategy Officer, Scorechain
Eligibility has to be enforced token by token, not chain by chain. Compliant and non-compliant stablecoins circulate side by side on the same networks, so controls need to recognise each token contract and apply one classification across trading, custody, and transfer flows.
Removing a trading pair does not stop the token arriving. Non-compliant stablecoins can still reach a CASP as deposits from self-hosted wallets, other VASPs, or decentralised exchanges. Transaction monitoring that identifies the asset in each transfer, and traces indirect exposure across multiple hops, lets compliance teams see these flows and act on them.
Under paragraph 25, NCAs will assess whether any CASP they supervise still maintains or facilitates access to non-compliant tokens. The most direct answer is an audit trail that shows when each control went live, which clients were affected, and how residual balances fell over the wind-down.
Every control above depends on one capability: seeing stablecoin activity token by token rather than chain by chain. Scorechain's stablecoin transaction monitoring covers USDT, USDC, EURC, EURCV, and other regulated stablecoins across 25+ blockchains. It screens incoming and outgoing transfers in real time and re-scores them automatically as new intelligence comes in.
Classification starts at the asset level. Scorechain's asset data records the regulatory status of each stablecoin, including any MiCA authorisation with the authorising NCA and the date it was granted, as well as supervisory bans such as EU Council sanctions on a token. Addresses frozen by stablecoin issuers are flagged as their own entity type, Blacklisted.
In a remediation plan, that has direct uses. Deposits of tokens a CASP no longer supports show up as they arrive, not at month-end reconciliation. Customisable alerts can be built around the firm's own token eligibility list, which gives the wind-down a defined escalation path. And the record behind each alert is the kind of evidence an NCA will look for when it applies the opinion.
Token and Stablecoin Monitoring is part of Digital Asset Intelligence, alongside the counterparty and VASP data compliance teams use for due diligence. Scorechain was founded in 2015, is headquartered in Luxembourg, and is used by more than 350 compliance and digital asset teams.
The opinion is not new legislation. ESMA issued it under Article 29(1)(a) of the ESMA Regulation to build consistent supervisory practice, and it is addressed to national competent authorities. NCAs are expected to apply it when supervising CASPs, and ESMA will monitor its timely application, so CASPs should treat it as the supervisory standard.
No. The opinion applies only to ARTs and EMTs that do not meet MiCA's requirements for a lawful offer to the public or admission to trading in the EU. Stablecoins whose issuers are authorised under Title III or Title IV, or that fall under an applicable exemption or transitional arrangement, are outside its scope.
Only as part of a limited wind-down. ESMA's expectation covers custody and transfer services, so CASPs should not keep non-compliant stablecoins in custody as a standard service. Safekeeping of existing holdings is allowed only where needed for an orderly exit, and it must be time-limited, communicated to clients, and closely supervised.
The deadline is January 8, 2027. ESMA asks NCAs to require remediation of legacy exposures as soon as possible and no later than three months after the opinion's publication on October 8, 2026. Any service continuing after that should be limited to sell-only, conversion, transfer, or withdrawal.
The opinion focuses on EU clients and on the availability of non-compliant ARTs and EMTs in the Union. ESMA asks CASPs to prevent EU clients from acquiring or increasing positions in these tokens. CASPs serving clients in several jurisdictions should check local rules for their non-EU client base separately.
With January 8, 2027 as the outer limit, most CASPs have one quarter to classify their stablecoin book, switch off new exposure, and run a supervised wind-down. The token inventory comes first, because every later step depends on it. For the framework behind this opinion, including how ARTs and EMTs are authorised, see our guide to EU stablecoin regulation under MiCA.
To see how Scorechain monitors stablecoin flows at token level and produces the audit trail an NCA will ask for, book a demo with our team.
