On 1 July, the transition period under the MiCA regulation ends in the European Union. About 80% of crypto companies have not yet obtained a CASP license and will be forced to stop serving European customers. Even giants like Binance, HTX, and BitMEX remain in limbo, with unsanctioned exchanges risking institutional isolation and loss of access to banking partners.

The main victim of MiCA is USDT steambooks from Tether. Because of a reluctance to hold 60% of its reserves in European banks, the issuer did not apply for compliance. As a result, major exchanges are phasing out pairs with USDT, converting European trading to MiCA compliant counterparts like USDC and EURC. Although storage and transfers of USDT are not prohibited, its purchase and trading on regulated sites is effectively blocked.

Experts note that USDT’s exit will not destroy its global dominance, but will lead to liquidity fragmentation. Marketers will have to split the pools for the EU and the rest of the world, which will complicate arbitration and increase costs on large deals. Some of the volumes will go to DeFi and offshore platforms, but strict supervision by MiCA for "feedback request" will make work through them extremely risky.