MiCA pushes USDT off European platforms, but Tether demand keeps growing in Argentina

Revolut has told European users it will delist USDT after Aug. 31, adding to the list of platforms adjusting to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules. The thing is, Artemis Analytics says the European squeeze has not shown up as a meaningful drop in USDT supply or demand, which matters for PSPs because token availability on regulated venues is not the same thing as actual payment demand.

1. MiCA’s stablecoin rules have been phasing in since 2024, and the EU-wide transition period ended on July 1. That has put pressure on platforms to drop tokens that do not meet the rules, with Revolut’s USDT delisting after Aug. 31 being the latest example.
2. Artemis Analytics says it has not seen a noticeable change in USDT supply or demand directly tied to MiCA. Alex Weseley, research and data, said: “The data does not indicate any noticeable change in USDT supply or demand attributable directly to MiCA coming into effect in Europe… MiCA didn’t trigger a major venue or chain migration.”
3. The demand story looks very different in Argentina. Lemon, an Argentine crypto and financial services platform, processed $9.3 billion in total volume in 2025, up 60% from the previous year. Transactional users grew 70% to nearly 1.8 million, and stablecoin volume grew 45% year-on-year.
4. Ignacio Gimenez, Lemon’s business and planning manager, said the role of USDT and other dollar stablecoins is shifting from store of value to financial infrastructure. He said activity is increasingly driven by payments, cross-border transfers and global financial services rather than only savings, with users able to pay in Brazil through PIX using pesos, receive dollars or euros from overseas and have them credited as USDC, or move between bank dollars and digital dollar balances.
5. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the useful takeaway is that MiCA changes the European gateway, but it does not automatically change where stablecoin demand lives. Artemis data also shows the number of daily users on Binance Smart Chain rose from about 318,000 in June 2024 to 1.56 million by July 2026, which is another reminder that activity can migrate around the perimeter rather than disappear.