Binance EU MiCA licensing gap: 45% market share despite missed deadline
Months after the European Union’s hard deadline for crypto licensing passed, Binance is still opening accounts and processing trades for customers across the bloc, according to a Bloomberg report. The gap between what regulators intended and what the world’s largest crypto exchange is actually doing has turned Binance EU MiCA licensing compliance into one of the more awkward test cases for Europe’s new crypto rulebook.
Key takeaways
- Binance missed the EU’s MiCA licensing deadline on July 1, 2026, after withdrawing its Greek application on June 24, 2026.
- The exchange keeps serving EU users through the reverse solicitation exemption and by routing some trades through an Abu Dhabi entity.
- ESMA has contacted Binance directly, seeking confirmation that it is genuinely winding down EU business rather than continuing it under a different label.
- Binance still controlled more than 45% of global spot trading volume in late August, despite lacking MiCA authorization.
- France’s ACPR flagged anti-money-laundering gaps at Binance, which is now pursuing a MiCA license through the AMF; about 2 million French users lost trading access on July 1.
Binance Misses EU MiCA Licensing Deadline but Continues Operations
Binance did not secure the authorization it needed to keep operating across the EU when the transition period under the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation closed on July 1, and yet it has kept doing business there anyway. The exchange told users bloc-wide that it would stop onboarding new customers and wind down full services starting that date. That announcement, it turns out, was not the end of the story.
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