Here’s what happened in crypto today
Today in crypto, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has confirmed to Cointelegraph that the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) does not explicitly ban non-compliant stablecoin custody and transfers, the US Senate voted to kill the IRS’ DeFi broker rule, and more than $1 billion worth of derivatives were liquidated on March 4 due to fears of a trade war.Tether USDt custody and transfers ‘not restricted’ under MiCA — ESMAThe European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has added new comments on the status of stablecoins that do not comply with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), adding to the ongoing uncertainty around their classification and use. On March 3, Binance announced plans to delist nine non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins, including Tether’s UDSt (USDT), for users in the European Economic Area (EEA).Despite removing the affected tokens for trading, Binance said it will support deposits and withdrawals of non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins after the delisting on March 31.According to ESMA, a key regulatory body overseeing MiCA compliance in Europe, providing custody and transfer services for non-compliant stablecoins does not violate the new European cryptocurrency laws.“Under MiCA, custody and transfer services do not in themselves constitute an ‘offering to the public’ or ‘seeking admission to trading’ of non-compliant asset-reference tokens or e-money tokens,” a spokesperson for the ESMA told Cointelegraph on March 4.“These services are therefore not explicitly prohibited under Titles III and IV of MiCA,” the representative added.Although the ESMA acknowledged that deposits and withdrawals of non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins are not prohibited, it stressed that European crypto asset services providers (CASPs) should “prioritize restricting services that facilitate the acquisition” of such assets, citing its guidance issued on Jan. 17, 2025.US Senate votes to kill IRS DeFi broker ruleThe US Senate on March 4 passed a resolution to repeal a rule that would require decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with a 70 to 27 vote.The Biden-era rule looks to expand existing IRS reporting requirements to include decentralized exchanges and require brokers to disclose gross proceeds from crypto sales, including information regarding taxpayers involved in the transactions.The resolution now moves to the House, where it will need to be passed before being sent to President Donald Trump. The White House’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, has said Trump supports killing the rule.Eli Cohen, general counsel of the RWA tokenizing platform Centrifuge, said in a statement to Cointelegraph that the rule never made “any sense and was unworkable in practice.”Tariff turmoil sparks $1 billion in liquidations: CoinGlassCryptocurrency derivatives traders suffered more than $1 billion in liquidations in the past 24 hours as fears of a looming trade war sent markets tumbling, according to data from CoinGlass. More than 87% of liquidations came from long positions after a volatile start to March that saw double-digit losses on March 4 erase similarly large gains from only days earlier, the data showed. On March 4, US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the United States’ largest trading partners, sending the S&P 500 stock index down nearly 2% in morning trading. Bitcoin (BTC) declined to around $82,000 after touching highs of around $93,000 on March 3, according to data from Google Finance. Cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) fell even further, dropping by around 12% and 20%, respectively. The drawdown was a bait-and-switch for traders who turned optimistic after Trump tipped plans on March 2 to create a US crypto reserve holding tokens ranging from BTC and ETH to XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA). Bitcoin longs comprised the largest portion of liquidated positions, at upward of $300 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Meanwhile, SOL, XRP and ADA positions collectively suffered more than $150 million in liquidations, the data showed.