MiCA Deadline Forces Binance To Freeze Services Across The EU

Binance will suspend some services for European Union users from Jul. 1 after failing to secure a license under the bloc's MiCA crypto rules before the deadline.

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Binance Halts EU Services

The exchange emailed clients across four EU markets this week, warning that it would stop onboarding new users and restrict trading from next month. Customers in France, Italy, Poland and Spain were notified the company would not hold a MiCA license by the Jun. 30 cutoff. Their funds, the company stressed, would stay safe and accessible at all times.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, had pinned its EU access on Greece, filing an application there early this year and pursuing the approval for months. The firm withdrew that bid on Jun. 24, days before the deadline, and said it was not telling users to pull their money out by then.

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MiCA Rivals Gain Ground

The setback hands ground to rivals that secured EU approval in time. More than 200 firms now hold full MiCA permits across the bloc, among them Coinbase, which built a dedicated hub in Luxembourg for EU clients. OKX, Kraken and others secured their own authorization elsewhere across the region.

A single national license passports across all 27 EU states, so an approved exchange can court the very users Binance must now turn away as it winds down. Greek regulators, meanwhile, balked at the exchange's past, citing anti-money-laundering controls and doubts that co-founder Changpeng Zhao could clear the "fit and proper" test the rules apply to owners.

Binance Eyes France Next

The firm now intends to apply through France, where it already holds a pre-MiCA registration with the AMF that could smooth the path. Co-chief executive Richard Teng said the company still expects to win a MiCA license within the coming months, with Europe still a priority market. Europe head Gillian Lynch has insisted Binance is not leaving the region.

Any approval, though, would land well after Jul. 1. That leaves a window in which the exchange cannot legally serve its EU clients at all.

The licensing failure caps years of friction between Binance and regulators around the world. It pleaded guilty in the United States in 2023 to money-laundering and sanctions breaches and paid more than $4.3 billion, one of the largest corporate penalties in US history. Zhao stepped down as chief executive and served four months in prison before a pardon from President Donald Trump in October 2025, even as France pursues a separate money-laundering probe.

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