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Reuters reported on June 16, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) is set to reject Binance’s application for a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) crypto-asset service provider license. No formal rejection has been announced.
The HCMC declined to comment, citing confidentiality rules. Binance told Reuters it believes it has met the relevant MiCA requirements after 18 months of constructive engagement with regulators and a full application process.
The report puts Binance on the wrong side of a hard regulatory deadline. Under the EU’s MiCA, every platform operating in the bloc must hold proper authorization by July 1, 2026. Platforms without a license must halt services or face enforcement actions, fines, or blacklisting by national regulators.
MiCA’s passporting mechanism means a single approval from any member state grants operating rights across all 27 nations. A rejection from Greece carries no equivalent workaround.
Binance submitted its MiCA application to the HCMC in January 2026 through a Greek subsidiary called Binary Greece, which was incorporated to serve as the exchange’s European holding company. Co-CEO Richard Teng cited Greece’s skilled workforce and growth potential as the basis for choosing Athens as the regulatory home.
The choice also reflected a strategic calculation about regulatory speed. Germany had granted over 45 MiCA licenses, and the Netherlands had issued 22 by the time Binance filed in January 2026. Greece had issued zero. Binance appears to have concluded that a less-saturated regulator would process its application faster.
Greece’s HCMC has now spent five months on the file and, per Reuters’ sources, is preparing to turn it down without having issued a single MiCA license to any company.
Binance’s Greek filing arrived against a backdrop of sustained European regulatory friction. France’s banking regulator Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) identified significant deficiencies in Binance’s risk control systems during inspections.
France’s AMF included Binance among 90 crypto companies flagged as MiCA non-compliant in January 2026, warning that its French transition period ended June 30. In 2021, multiple EU member states had flagged Binance as an unregistered exchange. Regulators across the bloc have imposed fines exceeding 540 million euros against crypto companies for MiCA-related violations.
Binance had already begun restricting European services ahead of the deadline. The platform blocked copy trading, asked users to close certain positions, and limited products linked to unregulated stablecoins, while maintaining spot trading, deposits, and withdrawals. Those restrictions foreshadowed the possibility that the application would not be approved.
Europe represents a material share of Binance’s global user base. The exchange is active in at least six European nations and averages $11.9 billion in reported daily trading volume globally, according to CoinGecko. A forced EU exit or service restriction would remove the world’s largest exchange from the bloc’s retail and institutional trading ecosystem simultaneously.
Let me translate what’s actually happening with #Binance and the EU.
Germany had already issued 45 #MiCA licences. Netherlands had issued 22. Both well established regulatory jurisdictions with clear processes.
Binance chose Greece, a country that had issued zero MiCA licences… https://t.co/neqBP5JZcL
— Moody Hank (@moodybtc) June 16, 2026
Without a MiCA license, Binance would not be permitted to onboard new EU clients, offer regulated services, or legally operate within the passporting framework. Existing users would need to migrate to licensed alternatives or continue using the platform in a legal gray area that national regulators have made clear they intend to close.
Coinbase and Kraken both hold MiCA licenses and are operationally positioned to absorb displaced Binance users. OKX received a MiCA license in Malta. Crypto.com holds European regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions. Each of those platforms has spent the period since MiCA’s full implementation in December 2024 building compliant EU infrastructure precisely for this scenario.
Tether’s USDt (USDT) remains in a parallel position of exposure. Despite holding the world’s dominant stablecoin market share, Tether has not received a MiCA license and has already been delisted from several EU exchanges. Circle’s USDC (USDC) and EURC, Société Générale-Forge’s EURCV, and Membrane Finance’s EURe have all cleared the MiCA stablecoin hurdle, producing a market structure in which the largest global stablecoin has no compliant EU status, while euro-denominated alternatives gain ground.
An appeal or last-minute regulatory engagement by Binance could still shift the outcome before July 1.
The exchange has not confirmed whether it intends to appeal or seek an alternative filing in another member state. Fifteen days remain before the deadline.
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