Brussels and national regulators press Binance over MiCA reverse-solicitation exemption

European regulators are questioning Binance's reliance on a legal exemption to keep serving customers in the bloc, despite the exchange's failure to obtain a licence under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, according to the Financial Times. The European Securities and Markets Authority, alongside the French, German and Greek national authorities, is examining whether the world's largest crypto exchange genuinely qualifies for MiCA's so-called reverse-solicitation exemption, set out in Article 61 of the regulation.

"Des responsables de l'UE interrogent la plateforme crypto Binance sur son recours à une exemption légale pour continuer à servir des clients dans la région, selon des personnes au fait du dossier, malgré son échec à obtenir une licence et un ordre de mettre fin à ses activités dans le bloc," the Financial Times reported.

The scrutiny follows the end of MiCA's transitional period on 30 June 2026, after which crypto firms operating in the EU without authorisation were expected to wind down local activity unless clients approached them unprompted, the narrow condition the reverse-solicitation clause is meant to cover. On 23 June 2026, ESMA instructed unlicensed providers to immediately stop onboarding new EU clients and marketing to them. The authority followed on 30 June with a statement addressing the reverse-solicitation question directly, which the FT cites as describing the exemption as something to be "comprise comme très étroitement encadrée."

Withdrawals and lost access

Binance withdrew its Greek licence application on 24 June 2026, and Greece published its MiCA register without the exchange's name at the end of September. In France, Binance stopped accepting new clients from 1 July 2026, a move affecting roughly 2 million existing French users. The Dutch regulator, the AFM, has also weighed in, noting that firms "ne peuvent pas simplement invoquer" the exemption to continue operations.

Testing carried out by Sandmark in August found it was possible to open Binance accounts in France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Austria, a detail that has fed into the regulatory debate over how the exchange is applying the exemption in practice.

Binance's position

Binance told Bloomberg: "Nous travaillons activement pour obtenir l'agrément MiCA et considérons cela comme une étape importante pour offrir aux utilisateurs un service cohérent, régulé et fiable sur le marché européen." Binance's Europe head, Gillian Lynch, said on 24 June 2026 that the company was not leaving Europe. Chief executive Richard Teng said on 9 July 2026 that several regulators had invited Binance to reapply for licences, without naming the countries involved.

The episode comes alongside separate developments that have kept Binance in the headlines: a $100 million investment in Circle announced on 22 September 2026, and a report the same day that the US Department of Justice is investigating possible Iran sanctions violations. The Wall Street Journal also reported on 18 September that ECB president Christine Lagarde had pressed Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, though the Hellenic Capital Market Commission says it received no such communication from the ECB. ESMA, meanwhile, has reportedly placed reverse solicitation among its supervisory priorities for 2027.