OKX is said to have stopped supporting Tether as it has ceased to offer trading pairs with the USDT token in the European economic area, according to an image shared on the X social media platform.
A notification shared by X user MartyParty displayed a screenshot of a customer support notification seemingly confirming that USDT trading pairs are no longer supported in the European market.
The announcement further mentioned that over 30 spot trading pairs with the new euro stablecoin will be launched on OKX in light of the removal of USDT trading pairs.
As of the time of publishing this article, it is still unclear what exactly caused the reported delisting. Both OKX and Tether have yet to respond to the incident.
There have been numerous speculations on social media that the delisting is related to the stablecoin regulations under the framework of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations. While the aforementioned customer support notification does not explicitly state this case, it does mention that “regulatory requirements” are the cause of the discrepancy in token listings between geographical areas.
The EU’s MiCA regulation is expected to come into effect by the end of 2024, but the stablecoin regulations are expected to be introduced ahead as part of a comprehensive legislative package in the second quarter of 2024.
