Tether CEO says USDT skipped MiCA license over reserve risk concerns

Tether Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino said USDT did not seek a license under MiCA (European Union crypto-asset rules) because he views the framework as risky for stablecoins. Ardoino told Coin Bureau that the regulation is “very dangerous” for stablecoins and argued it could require issuers to keep 60% of reserves in uninsured cash deposits at small European banks. In his view, those banks may be unable to handle large-scale redemptions, making the structure unsafe. He called the legislation “ill-conceived” and said Tether chose to skip MiCA “to protect” its more than 400 million users.