The Wall Street Journal reports that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to reject Binance's MiCA license application, after Greek regulators had already signaled approval. Binance withdrew the filing in June, cutting the exchange off from passported access across the EU's single market.
Binance came closer to an EU-wide license than previously known, and a phone call stopped it. The Wall Street Journal reported that Lagarde asked Mitsotakis to block Binance's bid for a Markets in Crypto-Assets license in Greece, even though Greek regulators had all but cleared the file.
Athens was ready to say yes
Binance applied for a MiCA license with Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission in January 2026, seeking to use the license to passport across the EU's single market. By early June, Greek regulators notified the European Securities and Markets Authority that approval was coming, and chief executive Richard Teng had a launch visit to Athens planned. Then, in mid-June, an HCMC official told Binance that Lagarde opposed the license. Greek support reversed, and Binance withdrew the application on June 24, days ahead of the July 1 MiCA deadline, before any formal HCMC vote.
An ECB with no veto found another lever
The ECB holds no formal licensing power under MiCA — that authority sits with national regulators. Lagarde could not overrule the HCMC directly, so she went through the person who could. The Journal traces her opposition to Binance's 2023 guilty plea on US money-laundering and sanctions violations, which carried a $4.3 billion penalty and founder Changpeng Zhao's departure. According to CoinGape: HCMC said it assessed the application "independently and exclusively", and the ECB disputes the characterization.
Stablecoin scale, not just compliance, was the second motive
Beyond the compliance record, the WSJ points to Binance's stablecoin holdings as a rival concern. The report notes that a licensed Binance would have handed dollar stablecoins a regulated on-ramp across the bloc while the ECB's own digital euro project remains years from launch. A pivot to France produced no relief, but as of September 2026, Teng said other EU regulators have invited Binance's filings.
Coinbase already holds a MiCA license and has launched EU stablecoin payment partnerships, and CoinGape notes the licensing gap sits as a discount on BNB's valuation until a national regulator approves a Binance filing.
Binance has kept marketing to EU users halted since the July 1 deadline lapsed, and rivals including Kraken, Bitvavo and Bitpanda are positioned to absorb the volume it can no longer license.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, CoinGape
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