EBA makes Circle’s USDC first significant MiCA e-money token

The European Banking Authority has classified Circle’s USDC as the European Union’s first significant e-money token under MiCA, moving oversight of key financial requirements from France to the EBA from Nov. 12, 2026. The Cointelegraph report on the EBA decision says USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, at $73 billion, behind Tether’s USDT at $184 billion.

The EBA says 45 e-money tokens have been notified under MiCA and USDC is the first classified as significant. The designation does not make USDC the largest token or establish a new category of token; it triggers a different allocation of supervisory responsibilities for its EU issuer, Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. Circle also issues USDC in the United States through Circle Internet Financial, LLC.

Which USDC oversight moves to the EBA?

From Nov. 12, the EBA takes responsibility for supervising Circle’s own funds, reserve of assets, liquidity requirements, and recovery and redemption plans. France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) retains oversight of governance, qualifying holdings, fitness and propriety, outsourcing, and conflicts of interest, according to the EBA’s announcement.

That division matters because the classification brings EU-level oversight into specific areas tied to financial resources and the backing and redemption of the token, while leaving other supervisory work with the issuer’s home-state authority. The EBA and ACPR are to cooperate through the transition. The change is not a transfer of every supervisory responsibility to Brussels.

What does MiCA use to define “significant”?

MiCA requires at least three significance criteria to be met. The ESMA text of MiCA’s Article 43 lists measures including holder numbers, token value or reserve size, daily transaction activity, international use, and links to the financial system. The EBA says it assesses tokens against the regulation and relevant delegated rules; it did not publish in its announcement which criteria USDC met.

That distinction limits what can be inferred from the decision. The public announcement establishes the classification and the resulting supervisory split, but does not provide a scorecard showing how USDC performed against each criterion. Nor does significance by itself amount to an endorsement of the token or a guarantee against losses.

How does USDC compare with other stablecoins in the EU?

USDT provides a scale comparison: Cointelegraph reported market capitalizations of $184 billion for USDT and $73 billion for USDC when it covered the decision. But MiCA’s significance classification is a regulatory status, not a ranking by market capitalization alone. Among the 45 notified EMTs, USDC is the first to receive that classification, according to the EBA.

The EBA has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services to support information exchange on cross-border stablecoin activity. The announcement does not say that this agreement changes USDC’s issuance or redemption arrangements.

The next concrete signal is the Nov. 12 transfer of the specified supervisory duties to the EBA. After that, the points to watch are how the EBA and ACPR coordinate oversight and whether the EBA’s future assessments classify any other notified e-money tokens as significant.

Sources and documents

• Cointelegraph report on the EBA decision — cointelegraph.com
• ESMA text of MiCA’s Article 43 — esma.europa.eu