Crypto18 September, 20262 min read
Christine Lagarde Personally Blocked Binance’s EU MiCA License Bid in Greece
Lagarde personally urged Greek PM Mitsotakis not to approve Binance's MiCA application. Greece stalled the license after Lagarde's intervention, despite regulators' prior completion assessment.
Lagarde blocks Binance bid
A Wall Street Journal report says European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to block Binance’s EU MiCA license bid in Greece, with the account attributing the move to concerns about dollar-based stablecoins and the digital euro. The report says Lagarde urged Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve Binance’s MiCA application, even though MiCA approval is granted by the financial regulators of individual EU countries.
“‘We will not comment on speculation,’ a Binance spokesperson said.”
Binance later withdrew its Greek application in mid-June, and a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk, "We will not comment on speculation," while saying the exchange remained committed to operating under MiCA. CoinDesk also reported that an ECB spokesperson declined to comment when contacted, and that the ECB has no institutional role in authorizing crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), which remains the jurisdiction of national competent authorities like the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC).
Binance disputes, ECB silent
Binance’s response to the intervention report was to reiterate its Europe commitment while declining to address the allegation, with Cointelegraph quoting a Binance spokesperson saying, "We will not comment on speculation." Cointelegraph also reported that the ECB declined to comment on the reports and that it contacted the HCMC for comment but had not received a response by publication.
The Cointelegraph account places the licensing process in early June, when Greek officials told the European Securities and Markets Authority’s Digital Finance Standing Committee that they planned to approve the application, before the situation changed. In the same reporting, Binance said it applied for a MiCA license in Greece in January and withdrew its Greek application just days ahead of the July 1 MiCA deadline, while the ECB spokesperson declined to comment and the HCMC remained silent publicly.
Stablecoins, passporting, deadline
The reported intervention is framed around stablecoins and monetary sovereignty, with the Bitcoin Foundation source stating Lagarde explained a threat of “digital dollarisation” and loss of monetary sovereignty if stablecoins are issued in foreign currencies. That same source says Binance maintained that Greece’s filing was MiCA compliant and that the HCMC reviewed the application, found it compliant, and that the application had also been reviewed at the ESMA level.
In parallel, the Coin Academy account says Binance withdrew its request on June 24 before any formal decision, and it ties the operational stakes to MiCA’s passporting system, where authorization granted by a single country allows covered services across the bloc. Coin Academy also states that the MiCA transition period ended July 1 and that without a license Binance’s French entity suspended spot, margin, and futures trading, leaving about 2 million French users with no option other than withdrawal of their assets.