USDC now has 56% of euro stablecoin trading, Kaiko says, two days before Coinbase converts EEA USDT

USDC now accounts for 56% of stablecoin trading against the euro, up from 10% in January 2024, according to a report by the market data firm Kaiko that Cointelegraph and Crypto Briefing covered on 27 October 2026. On the one measure of USDC vs USDT in Europe that is public, euro trading pairs, Circle’s dollar token is now ahead of Tether’s. USDC’s euro order books are also about 40% deeper than USDT’s, Cointelegraph reports from the same study.

The figure covers one corner of the market. It is the share of stablecoin-to-euro volume on the exchanges in Kaiko’s sample, not the share of all crypto held or traded by Europeans, and not a global ranking. Worldwide, USDT’s circulating supply is still about 2.5 times USDC’s, Cointelegraph notes.

The timing matters for anyone in the European Economic Area who still keeps USDT on Coinbase. On Friday 30 October, Coinbase’s Luxembourg entity is due to convert the remaining balances of 14 stablecoins without MiCA authorisation, USDT included, for its retail clients, according to Journal du Coin and CryptoSlate. The proceeds go into USDC where Coinbase considers it suitable.

USDC vs USDT in Europe: what Kaiko measured, and what it did not

Kaiko describes stablecoin-to-euro pairs as a “main on-ramp and off-ramp for European customers”, in the words Cointelegraph quotes. That is the logic of the metric: when a French or German user turns euros into crypto on an exchange, a growing share of that first step goes through a dollar stablecoin, and that stablecoin is now more often USDC than USDT.

Several things are missing from the public coverage. We could not open the report itself: Kaiko’s research site redirects to a log-in application, and none of the three outlets that reported the figures links to it. The title of the study, its exact data window, the list of exchanges and whether it counts spot trades only are not given. Nor is USDT’s own share. Since other stablecoins also trade against the euro, 44% for USDT cannot simply be inferred from the 56%.

Cointribune, which wrote up the same data on 28 October, makes the limit explicit: Kaiko measures stablecoin and euro exchange on trading venues, not every transaction made by European investors. A holder who bought USDT years ago and keeps it in a self-custody wallet does not appear in these numbers. Neither does a European who trades USDT on an exchange outside the EU’s rules.

Cointelegraph also printed a Kaiko chart showing the USDC/EUR pair overtaking USDC/USDT. In other words, on the venues Kaiko follows, more USDC now changes hands against euros than against Tether’s token. The article gives no figures from that chart beyond the caption.

From 10% to 56%: the shift followed the 2025 delistings

USDC’s rise began when exchanges serving the European Economic Area started to cut USDT for their clients under MiCA, the EU regulation that requires a stablecoin offered to the public to be issued by an authorised firm. Circle obtained that status for USDC. USDT has no such authorisation.

Two moves in March 2025 stand out. Kraken put USDT on sell-only for EEA clients on 24 March 2025, and Binance removed spot trading pairs for USDT and several other non-compliant tokens for EEA users by 31 March 2025, Cointelegraph reported at the time. Cointribune, citing detailed data it attributes to Kaiko, says USDC’s share of euro stablecoin trading went from 25% to 46% in that month alone. The rest of the climb, to 56%, was slower.

The European Securities and Markets Authority added pressure on 8 October 2026, with a deadline in early January for licensed firms; the details are in our report on ESMA’s January deadline for non-MiCA stablecoins.

A study finds the same switch, and no global exit from USDT

The Kaiko numbers fit with an academic paper posted in July. In “Does Regulation Bite at Gateways? Evidence from MiCA and Stablecoins”, the economists Borri and Shakhnov compare exchanges that serve regulated EU users with venues aimed at a global clientele. The preprint, submitted on 10 July 2026, has not been peer reviewed.

Their abstract says aggregate market shares and volumes barely moved after exchanges delisted USDT pairs for EEA users while USDC gained its MiCA authorisation. On the regulated venues, though, USDC’s share rose by 0.82 pre-event standard deviations and its relative volume by 0.54, compared with globally oriented ones. The authors attribute this to USDT trading falling where it was delisted, rather than to new demand for USDC.

Read together, the two sources describe a re-routing of European flows at the gates that regulators control. They do not describe a run from Tether.

Deeper USDC order books: about 40%, by Kaiko’s count

Depth is the amount of buy and sell orders resting near the current price. A deeper book lets a larger order go through without moving the price much, which matters for a business converting a few million euros at once more than for a retail user buying a few hundred.

Kaiko puts USDC’s euro books about 40% deeper than USDT’s, as reported by Cointelegraph, which gives neither a dollar amount nor the period measured. The gap is in USDC’s favour for anyone moving large sums in euros, the business treasurer more than the saver.

The figures, side by side

The euro in these pairs is mostly a dollar token

A detail is easy to miss in the headline. When a European buys USDC with euros, the result is still a token pegged to the US dollar, Cointribune points out. The 56% share says that dollar stablecoins bought with euros now go mostly to USDC. It does not say Europeans are moving into a euro stablecoin.

Euro-backed stablecoins remain small next to them. Crypto Briefing reports they made up under 8% of total EUR trading volume, a figure it presents as research findings without tying it clearly to Kaiko. No Kaiko figure on Circle’s euro token, EURC, appears in this week’s coverage; Cointribune only says EURC activity had already grown under MiCA.

Exchanges are still trying to change that. OKX, for instance, plans to merge euros and EURC into a single order book for EEA users, as we reported in our piece on OKX’s shared euro and EURC book.

Coinbase’s 30 October cut-off: 14 stablecoins converted for EEA clients

The next step in the shift comes on Friday. Coinbase told its European retail clients that it will convert their remaining balances of stablecoins that have no MiCA authorisation on 30 October 2026, according to Journal du Coin and CryptoSlate. The notice concerns individual clients of Coinbase Luxembourg S.A., the entity licensed by Luxembourg’s CSSF that serves accounts in France, Germany, Italy and the rest of the EEA, Journal du Coin says.

The 14 tokens named in the reports are USDT, PYUSD, USD1, USDS, DAI, PAX, PAXG, GUSD, GYEN, BUST, UST, RAI, MUSD and TGBP. Buying, selling and converting them on Coinbase is already blocked, CryptoSlate reports. Coinbase cites the end of MiCA’s transition period for stablecoin issuers on 1 July 2026, with no extension.

We tried to read Coinbase’s own help page on the restricted stablecoins on 28 October; it refused our request, as it did for the Coindaro researcher on 27 October. The details below therefore come from the two outlets, which agree on the list and the date. Neither gives an hour or a time zone for the cut-off.

What Coinbase says it will do with balances left on the account

Balances still held on 30 October will be sold once at the market rate. The proceeds go into USDC where Coinbase considers it suitable, or otherwise into another supported asset or currency. Holders who want to keep the original tokens can withdraw them to a supported external wallet before the date. If an issuer later obtains authorisation, support could return, but CryptoSlate reports that completed conversions will not be reversed.

GYEN, the yen stablecoin issued by GMO Trust, runs on a separate track: Coinbase stopped its transfers on 26 October and converts balances into USDC between 26 and 30 October at market rates, without fees, CryptoSlate reported on 23 October.

Deposits that arrive after the deadline

Tokens sent to Coinbase after 30 October will not be credited, traded, transferred or converted, according to both reports. Such deposits may become inaccessible, CryptoSlate writes. Coinbase’s paid service for recovering unsupported assets may get some of them back, with no guarantee; the reported terms are 5% of recovered assets above $100, plus network fees.

Is the USDT to USDC conversion taxable?

Coinbase warns that swapping one crypto-asset for another may create a tax obligation in some jurisdictions, even when the conversion is automatic, CryptoSlate reports. The answer depends on the country.

In France, article 150 VH bis of the general tax code puts exchanges between digital assets with no cash adjustment under a tax deferral: the tax administration’s guidance (BOFiP, BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-10, paragraph 80) treats them as intermediate operations that trigger no tax. A USDT to USDC blockchain, where users swap tokens directly from their own wallets without handing custody of their funds to a company.">swap falls in that category, and Journal du Coin reads Coinbase’s forced conversion the same way. The gain is not erased: it is taxed later, when crypto is sold for euros or spent on goods or services. Coinbase’s notice, as reported, does not say whether the sale goes through a fiat currency.

That rule may change. French MPs voted at first reading in October to tax conversions into MiCA-authorised stablecoins such as USDC and EURC from 1 January 2027; the measure is not law yet, as we explained in our report on France’s planned tax on swaps into USDC and EURC. Rules in Italy, Germany and the rest of the EEA differ. Coindaro does not give tax advice.

After Friday: ESMA’s January limit and the EBA from 12 November

Coinbase’s date is its own. Other licensed platforms in the EU work to ESMA’s limit of early January 2027 for clearing existing exposures to non-compliant stablecoins, covered in our ESMA report linked above.

Then, from 12 November 2026, the European Banking Authority takes over part of the supervision of USDC’s issuer, after classing it as the EU’s first significant e-money token. What moves from the French ACPR to the EBA is explained in our report on the EBA’s oversight of USDC’s reserves.

What is still unknown

The Kaiko report itself is the first gap. Until it is public, nobody outside the firm’s clients can say over which period the 56% was measured, which exchanges count, or when exactly USDC passed USDT in euro pairs. The reported coverage gives no crossover date.

Nor is it known how much USDT Coinbase’s European clients still hold, or how much USDC the conversion on Friday will add to the euro-pair figures. Journal du Coin writes that USDC already has the majority among stablecoins on Coinbase, without giving numbers.

Tether, PayPal and World Liberty Financial, whose tokens are on Coinbase’s list, had not commented on the conversion in the reports we read.

USDT and USDC, in short

Both are dollar stablecoins: tokens meant to stay worth one US dollar, backed by reserves held by their issuers. Tether issues USDT and is the larger of the two by far. Circle issues USDC and holds an e-money institution licence in France, which lets it offer USDC in the EU under MiCA. USDT has none, which is why EEA platforms drop it. The longer comparison, from reserves to fees, is in our guide to USDT vs USDC.