USDT leaves Europe but Tether keeps expanding worldwide

USDT is becoming increasingly difficult to access through regulated European crypto platforms. MiCA is forcing providers to adjust their stablecoin offering, and Revolut is removing USDT after 31 August. Strikingly, the rest of the world appears to pay little attention. Demand for Tether remains strong, and usage is shifting further towards payments and international money flows.

MiCA changes the European stablecoin market

The European transitional period for MiCA ends on 1 July 2026. This is increasing pressure on crypto platforms to remove stablecoins that do not meet European requirements from their offering.

Revolut is one of the latest big names to take this step. European users will no longer be able to use USDT via the platform after 31 August. Other providers have been restricting Tether for longer. OKX Europe, for example, has not offered USDT to European customers for about two years.

For users, this mainly means USDC and regulated euro stablecoins are becoming more important. Anyone who still holds USDT at OKX can use a one way conversion method to convert USDT to USDC.

However, the disappearance of USDT from European platforms does not mean the stablecoin is losing ground globally.

Outside Europe, USDT continues to grow strongly

Data from Artemis Analytics shows no clear change in demand for or supply of USDT that can be directly linked to MiCA. Nor is there any notable shift of USDT between different blockchains around key MiCA moments.

Outside Europe in particular, stablecoins are increasingly being used as financial infrastructure. This is not only about crypto trading. People are also using digital dollars for payments, international transfers and receiving or storing money.

This is reflected in the growth of low cost blockchains. BNB Smart Chain had around 318,000 daily users in June 2024. By July 2026, that figure is around 1.56 million. On Tron, the number of daily users grows by 44% over the same period to around 908,000.

Stablecoins are increasingly used as digital money

Argentina provides a good example of this development. Crypto and financial platform Lemon processed around $9.3 billion in volume in 2,025.60% more than a year earlier. Stablecoin volume rises by 45%, while the number of users grows by 70% to nearly 1.8 million.

Stablecoins are thus taking on a broader function than simply parking crypto profits in digital dollars. They are increasingly becoming part of everyday payments.

Europe can decide through MiCA which stablecoins regulated platforms may offer, but it has far less influence over what users around the world prefer. For now, USDT appears to be hardly affected by this.