ECB President Lagarde blocked Binance's EU license, WSJ reports (September 18)

The European Central Bank's president used informal pressure to block Binance's application for a cryptocurrency license in Greece, according to the Wall Street Journal, forcing the world's largest crypto exchange to withdraw its filing and forfeit streamlined access to 450 million European Union residents.

Although the ECB holds no formal licensing authority under the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, high-level intervention led Greece to stall an application that regulators had previously deemed complete, the Journal reported citing interviews with officials. The Wall Street Journal reported that Lagarde wanted to keep Binance, which pleaded guilty to financial-crime violations in the United States, out of the European Union.

Under EU law, local Crypto-Asset Service Providers must hold a MiCA license. Binance withdrew its application in Greece in June, according to reporting, and said it remains committed to pursuing authorization in another EU member state.

Lagarde worried that Binance would entrench the dominance of dollar-based stablecoins in Europe rather than encourage euro counterparts, according to the Journal's sources. In 2021, Lagarde called Bitcoin a highly speculative asset used for money laundering. She has since described the digital euro as key to Europe's financial autonomy while taking aim at privately issued stablecoins.

Binance declined to comment on the allegations, calling them speculation, and did not respond to requests for more detail. The exchange and its CEO, Chanpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money-laundering violations and paid a record $4.3 billion fine.

Meanwhile, the ESMA's MiCA provider registry has grown to 349 firms as of late September, up from 243 in late June. Banks have increased their share of registered providers to nearly 23 percent from about 17 percent over the same period. The number of registered providers is growing, even as Binance's application stalled.