The European Central Bank and the national central banks of all 27 EU member states are pushing to rewrite one of the most contested provisions in the bloc's crypto rulebook: the requirement that large stablecoin issuers hold a substantial share of their reserves as deposits with commercial banks.
Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA, issuers deemed "significant" must currently keep up to 60 percent of certain reserves in bank deposits. Smaller issuers face a 30 percent threshold. The ECB and its counterparts across the bloc now want to scrap that fixed percentage in favour of a liquidity-based standard.
The proposed alternative would require issuers to hold a minimum share of reserves in what the ECB describes as extremely liquid investments, maturing within one to five business days. Very short-term government paper is cited as an example of the kind of instrument that would qualify.
The push was flagged by the account Solid Intel, which wrote: "INTEL: ECB and EU central banks are pushing to scrap MiCA's rule requiring major stablecoin issuers to keep 60% of reserves in bank deposits | Per Reuters."
Why the rule matters for Tether
Tether, issuer of USDT, has not applied for a MiCA licence. Chief executive Paolo Ardoino has previously warned that forcing issuers to park large sums with commercial banks creates new risks rather than reducing them. Ardoino has said: "When MiCA becomes safer for consumers and stablecoin issuers, then we might reconsider."
A shift toward a liquidity-based requirement, rather than a fixed bank-deposit quota, would address that specific objection. It would not, on its own, guarantee that Tether applies for a licence, but it removes one of the concrete arguments the company has made publicly for staying outside the regulated EU market.
The ECB's own risk warnings
The central bank's position reflects concerns it has raised about the bank-deposit rule from both directions. The ECB has warned that a mass redemption event across a large stablecoin could force the sudden withdrawal of billions of euros from the banking system, creating funding problems for the banks holding those deposits. It has also pointed to the reverse scenario: if a bank holding a large share of a stablecoin's reserves were to collapse, the issuer itself could run into difficulty.
Any change would require action by European lawmakers. Until MiCA is formally amended, the existing bank-deposit thresholds of 60 percent for significant issuers and 30 percent for smaller ones remain in force across the bloc.
