EBA and NYDFS Strike Cross-Border Stablecoin Supervision Deal
The EBA signed a memorandum with New York’s financial regulator as USDC becomes the EU’s first significant e-money token under MiCA.
The European Banking Authority has signed a supervisory agreement with New York’s top financial regulator to oversee cross-border stablecoin activity, weeks before it takes direct control of Circle’s USDC in the European Union.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) said it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to support its supervision of cross-border stablecoin activities. The agreement lands alongside the regulator’s decision to classify USDC, issued in the EU by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, as the bloc’s first significant e-money token under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
NYDFS oversees Circle’s New York-regulated operations, while USDC is issued in the United States by Circle Internet Financial, LLC. The memorandum effectively links the two supervisors with a direct stake in the same issuer’s stablecoin business, a structure neither the EBA nor NYDFS has described in further detail.
The classification itself sets a precedent: USDC is the first of 45 e-money tokens notified in the EU to meet MiCA’s significance threshold. From November 12, 2026, direct supervisory responsibility for USDC’s own funds, reserve of assets, liquidity requirements, and recovery and redemption plans will move from France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution to the EBA, while the French authority retains governance, qualifying holdings, fit and proper assessments, outsourcing and conflicts of interest duties.
The timing gives the agreement commercial weight. USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of nearly $73 billion as of October 15, 2026, against $184 billion in circulation for Tether USDt and a total dollar-pegged stablecoin supply of $294 billion. EU-based token issuers have reportedly pushed for regulated US dollar-pegged stablecoins in the region, and Alexander Höptner, chief executive of euro stablecoin issuer AllUnity, said in an interview: “For European corporates to make cross-border payments globally, offering only a euro stablecoin isn’t enough.”
The EBA assesses whether notified tokens qualify as significant under MiCA Articles 43 and 56 each year, using indicators set out in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1506 and the procedure in EBA Decision EBA/DC/558, meaning the remaining 44 notified e-money tokens stay under annual review.
