OKX Ceased Support of $USDT for EU Users

Reported by Coindesk, crypto exchange OKX has ceased support for cryptocurrency trading pairs with Tether's USDT stablecoin for users based in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA), the exchange confirmed to CoinDesk.

As of Monday, OKX's platform offered spot crypto trading only with USDC and euro pairs, while USDT could only be traded against USDC and euro.

The shift emerged earlier in the day after a trader, on X, posted a note about the change from customer support citing regulatory compliance and security of the platform.

An OKX spokesperson, however, said that the action was driven by OKX's decision to focus on euro-denominated liquidity in the region.

"This year our focus is to expand EURO pair liquidity and become the preferred venue for EURO to crypto spot trading," the statement from the exchange said. "We evaluated this decision and delisting the current USDT pairs only impacts a small subset of our user base. Importantly, we’ve recently expanded our product offering in the EEA by introducing a variety of Euro fiat onramps and Euro pairs."

USDT remains available on the platform for EEA-based users to deposit and withdraw, and buy, sell and convert on over-the-counter (OTC) trading, the exchange's representative added.