Lagarde Blocks Binance's EU Crypto License Bid Through Greece
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to block Binance's bid for an EU-wide crypto license through Greece, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. In May, she reportedly called Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis directly and asked him not to approve the exchange's application under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
The conversation came at a pivotal moment. Binance had spent months working toward authorization through Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission, with officials having signaled their intention to approve the filing in early June.
Lagarde's reported intervention was tied to two concerns: Binance's compliance record and the ECB's own digital euro project. The exchange pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating US sanctions laws and agreed to pay over $4 billion, while Lagarde warned about the threat of dollar-denominated stablecoins to European monetary sovereignty.
Binance eventually withdrew its Greek application on June 24, just ahead of the July 1 deadline for firms to secure MiCA authorization or stop offering regulated crypto services in the bloc. The exchange disputed the notion that its application had failed regulatory review and cited 'the status and timeline' of the process as the reason for withdrawing.