The EBA will oversee reserves, capital and redemption plans for Circle’s European USDC issuance. France’s ACPR will retain responsibilities including corporate governance and outsourcing.
The European Banking Authority has classified USDC, issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, as a “significant e-money token” under MiCA. Its October 14 announcement identifies USDC as the first electronic money token in the European Union to receive that designation.
Supervision will be shared between the EBA and France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, or ACPR. The new allocation of supervisory duties takes effect on November 12, 2026.
Reserve and liquidity oversight moves to the EBA
Direct supervisory responsibilities for own funds, reserve assets, liquidity requirements, and recovery and redemption plans will transfer from the ACPR to the EBA.
The ACPR will retain supervision of areas including governance, qualifying holdings, assessments of managers’ suitability, outsourcing and conflicts of interest. The two authorities will cooperate during the transition and in their subsequent supervisory work.
“Significant” is a supervisory classification. Under MiCA, it subjects a token to additional requirements because of its scale and activities. The designation does not remove the risks of using stablecoins.
How the classification is determined
Article 56 of MiCA requires an e-money token to meet at least three of the criteria listed in Article 43. Quantitative thresholds include more than 10 million holders; issued value, market capitalisation or reserve size exceeding €5 billion; and average daily transactions exceeding both 2.5 million in number and €500 million in aggregate value.
The importance of international payment and remittance activities, and connections with the financial system, also enter the assessment. The EBA’s USDC announcement does not itemise which criteria were met using which figures.
Under the EBA’s MiCA supervisory framework, additional capital and liquidity requirements for significant e-money tokens fall within joint supervision. The authority also establishes a supervisory college for the issuer to support information sharing between regulators. Ongoing reporting and, where needed, on-site inspections form part of the supervisory process.
USDC is issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS and in the United States by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. The EBA also announced a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services to support cooperation and information exchange on cross-border stablecoin activities.
