Legal & Privacy
This Redemption Policy will be attached to the EURC and USDC white papers, as referred to in Article 51 of MiCAR.
This Redemption Policy aims to provide information on the right of redemption of the Circle Coins Holders (as defined below) as well as the procedure and conditions for the exercise of such right as provided in Article 51.6 and Annex III of MiCAR.
This Redemption Policy aims to provide for conditions and processes for redemption of USDC and EURC within the European Union and EEA. This Redemption Policy is attached to the EURC and USDC white papers of Circle France:
- EURC white paper is available to this address: circle.com/legal/mica-eurc-whitepaper
- USDC white paper is available to this address: circle.com/legal/mica-usdc-whitepaper
Holders of USDC located outside of EEA, shall refer to the specific Circle Mint User Agreement of Circle LLC applicable to them: https://www.circle.com/legal/user-agreement for redemption of USDC.
General
Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS is a company incorporated under the laws of France with registration number 953 990 934 at the Registry of Commerce and Companies of Paris, France and its registered office at 4 rue de Marivaux 75002 PARIS (“Circle France”). Circle France is licensed by the French Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) as an electronic money institution (établissement de monnaie électronique) under articles L.526-1 et seq. of the Monetary and Financial Code. Circle France’s ACPR register number is 17788.
Words commencing by a capital letter in the Redemption Policy shall have the meaning provided in the EURC and USDC white papers.
In the Redemption Policy, USDC and EURC are designated together as “Circle Coins”. Holders of Circle Coins (either EURC or USDC), are designated as “Circle Coins Holders”. Among the Circle Coins Holders, an individual natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside that person’s trade, business, craft or profession that holds EURC and/or USDC is referred to as “Retail Holder”.1
1. Right of redemption of the Circle Coins
1.1. Pursuant to Article 49 of MiCAR2, all Circle Coins Holders have a right of redemption of their Circle Coins at any time and at par value, subject to the conditions set out in the present policy.
1.2. Circle France’s Customers, i.e. holders that agreed to the Terms of Use of the Circle Mint Account or sign a Master Services Agreement with Circle France (the “Customers”) shall exercise their redemption right in compliance with the Terms of Use of their Circle Mint Account and/or the applicable Master Services Agreement3 directly with Circle France.
1.3. Circle Coins Holders other than Customers shall exercise their redemption right with respect to the Circle Coins against Circle France in accordance with the following Sections.
2. Procedure and conditions for the exercise of the right of redemption of Circle Coins
At any time, Circle Coins Holders may buy and/or sell the Circle Coins via retail exchanges accepting EURC and/or USDC trading such as Coinbase, Bitpanda, Bitvavo, Kraken or OKX.
If the Circle Coins Holders has previously attempted to redeem at a retail exchange and has been denied, or specifically wishes to redeem its Circle Coins with Circle France, it shall comply with the present policy.
2.1. Circle Coins Holders (other than Retail Holders)
To redeem their Circle Coins, Circle Coins Holders, other than Retail Holders, shall open a Circle Mint Account4 to access redemption only service and agree to the Terms of Use of the Circle Mint Account of Circle France.
Circle Coins Holders, other than Retail Holders, shall meet the criteria to open a Circle Mint Account to redeem their Circle Coins, including but not limited to the previous KYC and KYT as further specified in this policy.
2.2. Retail Holders
Retail Holders may redeem the Circle Coins with Circle France by registering to the form available via the dedicated URL address5 on the Circle France’s webpage.
Retail Holders shall meet the criteria further specified in the present Redemption Policy to redeem the Circle Coins. Circle France shall assess eligibility of the relevant Retail Holder for redemption based on the information provided in such form, and in accordance with the criteria set out in Section 4 below.
Upon confirmation of eligibility, Circle France shall perform the mandatory verifications of identity of the Retail Holder.
2.3. Eligibility criteria for redemption request of Retail Holders
Circle France has to abide by different regulations and Applicable Laws depending on the location of the Retail Holder.
In order to ensure compliance with Applicable Laws, including the anti-money laundering (“AML”) and counter-terrorist financing (“CTF”) requirements, redemption of Circle Coins will be performed if the Retail Holder can provide accurate information for the KYC and KYC verifications to be performed and validated.
Retail Holder shall also provide an IBAN from an EEA Bank Account for transfer of funds.
3. Verification of identity and transactions monitoring
3.1. Prior to the redemption of the Circle Coins, Circle France shall perform:
3.1.1. Identification and verification of identity of the Circle Coins Holders in compliance with Circle France’s AML CFT Policies and Applicable Laws (Circle France will carry out all relevant internal checks, review and internal processes);
3.1.2. Transaction monitoring verifications;
3.1.3. Verifications related to asset freezing measures;
3.1.4. Any other action required for the purpose of complying with all Applicable Laws.
3.2. In cases where the actions referred to in paragraph 3.1 would (upon Circle France carrying out all relevant internal checks, review and internal processes) reveal inconsistencies and/or AML CFT risks, the redemption of the Circle Coins will be subject to further assessment in compliance with the applicable laws.
4. Execution of Circle Coins redemption
4.1. For Circle Coins Holders, other than Retail Holders, redemption will be performed on the Circle Mint Account open by the Circle Coins Holders in accordance with the Terms of Use of the Circle Mint Account of Circle France.
4.2. For Retail Holders, Circle France will request Retail Holders to provide bank details that comply with the Redemption Policy and sign an electronic form to attest that:
- Their bank account details are correct
- They are the beneficiary on the bank account
- If requesting a EURC redemption, the bank account is able to accept SEPA payments
- If requesting a USDC redemption, the bank account is able to accept USD payments. Retail Holders are informed that third party fees may occur when payment in USD is performed on their bank account. Circle France is not liable for any such third party fees.
- Accept that any potential charges or other fees (e.g. currency conversion or incoming deposit fees) charged by the customer’s bank are not the responsibility or in the control of Circle and therefore, the responsibility of the Customer
Circle France will provide Retail Holders with a generated unique deposit address. Retail Holder shall deposit the Circle Coin(s) it wishes to redeem on this address.
Upon receipt of the Circle Coin(s) on the deposit address, Circle France will perform relevant verifications on the Circle Coin(s) including on previous transactions on the Circle Coin(s). Once verification are performed and all redemption eligibility criteria are met, Circle France will provide payment to the Retail Holder to their bank account. This process should not take more than 5 business days, unless discrepancies are identified during the redemption process.
5. Limitations of the redemption right
5.1. KYC, KYT, and Asset Freeze
5.1.1. Redemption of Circle Coins shall be subject to the identity checks, transactions monitoring verifications and other actions referred to in Section 5.
5.1.2. Circle France is required to prevent restricted persons from holding Circle Coins. A restricted person means any person that is:
a. not able to provide sufficient or consistent information in order to be identified and verified by Circle France, in accordance with Applicable Laws;
b. subject or target to sanctions, including persons named at any time in any Sanctions-related list maintained by France and the European Union and in compliance with the Circle France’s AML CFT Policies; or
c. located, organized or resident in a country, territory or geographical region which is itself the subject or target in the Circle France Prohibited Countries List (this list is available at this address) ; or
d. initiating a suspicious transaction according within the meaning of Applicable Laws; or
e. owned or controlled by any such person or persons listed above.
Together the “Restricted Persons”.
5.1.3. In the event that a Restricted Person has acquired Circle Coins, in breach of the EURC and USDC white papers, Circle Coins Holder(s) qualified as Restricted Person may not redeem the Circle Coins.
5.2. Circle Coins Holders that do not meet redemption requirements as defined in this Redemption Policy will be denied their Circle Coins redemption request. In case of complaints or dispute with regard to the execution of the Redemption Policy, Circle Coins Holders shall refer to Section “Complaints & Disputes” of the EURC or USDC white papers.
6. Copies, Forks & Advanced Protocols Not Supported
6.1. As a result of the decentralized and open source nature of Circle Coins, it is possible that a party unaffiliated with Circle France could create an alternative, equivalent version of Circle Coins either on one of the EURC Supported Blockchains and/or USDC Supported Blockchains or on an unsupported blockchain (a “Copy”) that operate independently from Circle France. Similarly, it is possible that a party unaffiliated with Circle France may create an asset and purport that such asset is collateralized by or otherwise incorporates Circle Coins into its design (a “Wrapper”). Circle France supports only Circle Coins and is under no obligation to support any Copies of Circle Coins or Wrappers and assumes no responsibility for any value that might be lost as a result of this lack of support of Copies of Circle Coins.
6.2. As a result of the decentralized and open source nature of the blockchains on which Circle Coins are supported, it is possible that a party unaffiliated with Circle could create an alternative version of the blockchain (a “Fork”). Note that in the event of a Fork of one of the EURC Supported Blockchains, Circle France may be forced to suspend all activities relating to the corresponding Circle Coin for an extended period of time until Circle has determined in its sole discretion that such functionality can be restored (“Downtime”). This Downtime will likely occur immediately upon a “Fork”, potentially with little to no warning, and during this period of Downtime Circle Coins Holders will not be able to conduct various activities involving EURC and/or USDC. In the event of a Fork of one of the EURC Supported Blockchains and/or USDC Supported Blockchains, Circle France shall, in its sole discretion, determine which Fork it will support, if any.
7. Amendments
7.1. Circle France may amend any provision of this Redemption Policy at any time by posting the revised version of this policy with an updated revision date on Circle France’ web page and following the processes described in Section 4.2. of the EURC and USDC whitepapers.
7.2. The changes will become effective, and shall be deemed accepted by Circle Coins Holders, the first time they access or use EURC/USDC after the initial posting of the revised Redemption Policy and shall apply on a going-forward basis with respect to transactions initiated after the posting date. In the event that a Circle Coin Holder would not agree with any such modification, such Circle Coin Holder’s sole and exclusive remedy will be to terminate its use of the EURC/USDC Services and terminate its Circle Mint Account (if any). Circle Coins Holders agree that Circle France shall not be liable to them or any third party as a result of any losses suffered by any modification or amendment of the Redemption Policy.
7.3. If the revised Redemption Policy includes a material change, Circle France shall provide the Circle Coins Holders with prior notice via Circle France’s webpage before the material change becomes effective. For this purpose, a “Material Change” means a significant change other than changes that (i) are to the Circle Coins Holders’ benefit, (ii) are required to be made to comply with Applicable Laws and/or regulations or as otherwise required by one of Circle France’s regulators, (iii) relates to a new product or service made available, or (iv) otherwise clarifies an existing term.
7.4. If any significant new factor, any material mistake or any material inaccuracy that is capable of affecting the assessment of the Circle Coins is made in the Redemption Policy, Circle France shall notify the revised policy to the competent authorities.
8. Recovery and Redemption Plans
8.1. This Redemption Policy may be automatically amended or suspended by implementation of the Recovery Plan and/or the Redemption Plan in accordance with Article 55 of MiCAR.
8.2. In this scenario, Circle Coins redemption will be managed as defined in the Circle France Recovery or Redemption Plans (as appropriate) to ensure the timely implementation of recovery actions.
8.3. Circle Coins Holders shall refer to Sections 4.3 and 4.4. of the EURC and USDC white papers.
9. Applicable Laws and Regulations
9.1. This Redemption Policy shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of France (the “Applicable Laws”). Any dispute under the Redemption Policy shall be brought exclusively in the Commercial courts of Paris, France except where prohibited by Applicable Laws.
9.2. This Redemption Policy shall be subject to the laws, regulations, and rules of any applicable governmental or regulatory authority, including, without limitation, all applicable tax, AMF CFT provisions and sanctions. Circle Coins Holders agree to act in compliance with, and to be legally bound by, this Redemption Policy and all Applicable Laws and regulations. This Redemption Policy is conditional on Circle Coins Holders’ continued compliance at all times with the Redemption Policy, EURC and USDC white papers and all Applicable Laws and regulations.
1 As defined in MiCAR for “retail holder”.
2 Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on markets in crypto-assets (“MiCAR”)
3 Terms of Use and Master Services Agreement are contractual documents agreed on between Circle France and its Customers.