{"id":78339,"date":"2026-09-18T10:02:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/lagarde-blocked-binances-eu-license-and-left-it-locked-out\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:02:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:02:40","slug":"lagarde-blocked-binances-eu-license-and-left-it-locked-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/lagarde-blocked-binances-eu-license-and-left-it-locked-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagarde Blocked Binance&#8217;s EU License and Left It Locked Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"@container mb-[25px] rounded-sm overflow-clip py-0.5 pr-0.5 pl-2.5 bg-success-100\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col gap-m overflow-clip rounded-[6px] !bg-success-10 p-3 @[420px]:p-m\">\n<h2 class=\"m-0 flex items-center gap-s text-[19px] !text-[#1c1c1c] md:text-[20px]\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"10\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 10\" fill=\"none\" class=\"shrink-0 text-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M1 1.5h14\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><path d=\"M1 8.5h10\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"2.5\" stroke-linecap=\"round\"\/><\/svg><span>Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"m-0 flex list-none flex-col gap-m pl-0\">\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">The WSJ reported Sept. 18 that Lagarde urged Greek PM Mitsotakis to reject Binance\u2019s license bid.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Around 2 million French users lost spot, margin and futures access when Binance\u2019s local entity stopped trading.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 flex items-start gap-s !text-[#434248]\"><span class=\"mt-2 size-2 shrink-0 rounded-full bg-success-100\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><span class=\"text-body\">Binance is now courting France\u2019s AMF while ESMA disputes its reverse solicitation workaround.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>The Announcement That Never Shipped<\/h2>\n<p>By late May, Binance\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/finance\/currencies\/christine-lagarde-helped-block-binances-foothold-in-europe-d905c86d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">paperwork was effectively done<\/a>, so much so that Greek officials had told Binance its application for a Europe-wide license was complete, a company press release headlined \u201cMajor Milestone\u201d was ready to go, CEO Richard Teng was planning to fly to Athens for a photo shoot with the prime minister, and his local deputy was about to sign an office lease.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>None of it happened and days later, a top official at the Greek regulator told Binance that European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde had personally intervened to thwart the application, according to people familiar with the interactions who spoke to the Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Under the European Union\u2019s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/mica-decoded-experts-share-unique-insights-for-crypto-founders-builders-and-investors\/\">authorization from a single member state passports across all 27<\/a>, which is why the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) mattered far beyond Greece. The ECB has no formal say in that process as licensing sits with national regulators. Greek authorities had already told the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in early June that they intended to approve the bid.<\/p>\n<p>The reversal took about a week, with Binance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.binance.com\/en\/square\/post\/337881938134866\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">withdrawing its application<\/a> on June 24, before the HCMC issued any decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Two Reasons and a Digital Euro<\/h2>\n<p>The reported objections were not really about Greece. The first was apparently institutional turf, i.e., Lagarde preferred to wait for the possibility that ESMA would take over EU-wide crypto licensing rather than let one national regulator hand out a bloc-wide permit.<\/p>\n<p>The second was monetary. A larger Binance footprint in Europe meant faster adoption of dollar-denominated stablecoins at exactly the moment the ECB is trying to build an alternative, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/european-central-bank-picks-36-firms-for-2027-digital-euro-payments-pilot\/\">digital euro pilot possible in 2027<\/a> and a first issuance penciled in for 2029. Binance\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/archives\/opa\/pr\/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2023 guilty plea<\/a> in the U.S. over money-laundering and sanctions violations gave the argument a clean hook.<\/p>\n<p>Lagarde has never needed prompting on this subject, and her push for tighter supervisory control over the sector predates the Binance file. That said, neither the ECB nor Greek authorities have publicly confirmed that she intervened.<\/p>\n<h2>Where That Leaves Two Million Users<\/h2>\n<p>When the MiCA transition period closed on July 1, Binance had no license and its French entity halted spot, margin and futures trading, cutting off roughly 2 million users who were left withdrawing assets rather than trading them. Bitcoin.com News reported at the time that the exchange was <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/binance-suspending-crypto-services-in-eu-markets-after-failing-to-secure-mica-approval\/\">suspending services across<\/a> several EU markets, after a scramble for an alternative route that <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/binance-races-for-new-eu-license-route-ahead-of-july-1-mica-deadline\/\">ran out of runway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What replaced the license is a patchwork, given Binance leans on MiCA\u2019s reverse solicitation carve-out, a narrow provision for customers who approach an unlicensed foreign firm entirely on their own initiative, and routes some EU trades through an Abu Dhabi entity that MiCA treats as a third country with no passporting rights.<\/p>\n<p>ESMA\u2019s position is that the exemption covers genuinely unsolicited contact, not a customer base built over years of marketing and app downloads. France\u2019s ACPR has separately pushed the exchange on anti-money-laundering (AML) control gaps found during on-site checks, and one report found new EU accounts were <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/regulation-and-legal\/binance-opens-new-eu-accounts-without-mica-license-report-finds\/\">still being opened<\/a> without a license.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange says it remains \u201ccommitted to doing business in the EU on a long-term, compliant basis\u201d and calls MiCA authorization an important step, with France\u2019s AMF now the realistic path. Teng, who has warned that Europe risks its crypto lead if the MiCA <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/europes-crypto-lead-at-risk-if-mica-rollout-fragments-binance-ceo-warns\/\">rollout fragments<\/a>, has said the company expects a license in the coming months. No application has been confirmed as filed.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the stakes are not confined to Europe as Binance still clears more than 45% of global spot volume (as of late August), so the venue where much of <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/market-updates\/crypto-liquidations-surge-past-260m-as-bitcoins-price-touches-77k\/\">bitcoin\u2019s price discovery<\/a> happens is one that 450 million Europeans cannot legally be marketed to. The EU has issued more than <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/eu-230-mica-licenses-germany-spain-july-1-deadline\/\">230 MiCA licenses<\/a> to competitors in the meantime.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/regulation-and-legal\/lagarde-blocked-binance-eu-license-greece-mica\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) Key Takeaways The WSJ reported Sept. 18 that Lagarde urged Greek PM Mitsotakis to reject Binance\u2019s license bid. Around 2 million French users lost spot, margin and futures access when Binance\u2019s local entity stopped trading. Binance is now courting France\u2019s AMF while ESMA disputes its reverse solicitation workaround. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3947362404,"featured_media":78340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3947362404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}