Why $USDC Was Classified as Significant
The switch follows the EBA’s decision on October 14 to classify $USDC as a significant e-money token. The EBA said there are currently 45 e-money tokens in the EU that have been notified under MiCA, and $USDC is the first to be classified as significant.
The classification applies to $USDC issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. In the United States, the token is issued by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. To support oversight of cross-border stablecoin activity, the EBA has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services, according to the regulator.
The label does not signal a problem with the token. Reporting by crypto.news notes that significant status does not mean the regulator found $USDC unsafe. Coin Edition adds that MiCA already requires e-money token issuers to redeem tokens at par on request, and that the extra supervision does not turn $USDC into a bank deposit.
Forexcrunch reports that the significance framework is being applied to an e-money token for the first time, and that the annual reassessment keeps the status of $USDC and the other 44 notified tokens under review. That would make the designation a yearly checkpoint rather than a permanent one.
For Circle, the practical effect is a second regulator looking at the financial safeguards behind $USDC. For the wider market, the 44 other notified tokens remain under assessment against the same criteria.