BUENOS AIRES — European platforms removed Tether's USDT, adapting to the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. Revolut, a major financial services platform, told European users it would delist USDT after Aug. 31.
MiCA's stablecoin rules phased in starting in 2024. The EU-wide transition period ended on July 1, 2026, pressuring platforms to drop tokens not meeting the new standards. Tether's official position states MiCA's requirements are incompatible with its business model, leading it to not pursue a license.
Yet global demand for USDT shows little sign of weakening. Artemis Analytics data indicates no significant shift in USDT activity following the European delistings.
"USDT demand remains resilient because dollar stablecoins serve purposes beyond just trading or saving in many regions," said Alex Weseley, research and data at Artemis.
Argentina exemplifies this trend. The country has a long history of citizens storing wealth outside traditional financial systems. Stablecoin activity there continues to grow even as restrictions on accessing physical U.S. dollars have eased.
Lemon, an Argentine crypto and financial services platform, processed $9.3 billion in total volume during 2025—a 60 percent increase from the previous year. The platform's transactional user base grew 70 percent, reaching nearly 1.8 million individuals, while stablecoin volume alone increased 45 percent year-on-year.
"Stablecoin activity is increasingly driven by payments, cross-border transfers and global financial services rather than only by savings," said Ignacio Gimenez, Lemon's business and planning manager. Argentine users can make payments in Brazil through PIX using pesos, receive dollars or euros from overseas credited as USDC, or seamlessly move between bank dollars and digital dollar balances.
This behavior shift extends across emerging markets. Artemis data shows a rise in daily users on chains favored for low fees, which are critical for day-to-day stablecoin usage. Daily users on Binance Smart Chain increased from approximately 318,000 in June 2024 to 1.56 million by July 2026. Tron's daily users rose 44 percent, reaching around 908,000 during the same period.
