The transition period under the European Union’s MiCA framework, which regulates crypto asset markets, ends on July 1. The regulation, approved in December 2024, gave crypto asset service providers (CASPs) an 18-month compliance period. Once that period ends, platforms that have not obtained a MiCA license from any EU member state will no longer be able to serve customers across the bloc.
According to data from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), 244 companies had received MiCA licenses as of June 26. Germany leads the list with 57 approvals granted through BaFin, accounting for roughly a quarter of all licenses. France’s AMF and the Netherlands’ AFM share second place with 26 approvals each, while Malta’s MFSA follows with 17 licenses.
However, the numbers alone do not show the full picture. Before MiCA, more than 1,200 companies held national-level crypto registrations, but only around 17% of them managed to transition to the new standard. Poland alone was home to more than 1,400 legacy VASP registrations. This pointed to a large number of firms operating under looser national frameworks that may struggle to meet stricter EU-wide requirements.
Binance’s Greece Plan Fell Apart
The final week of the transition period was especially difficult for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. According to a Reuters report published on June 16, Greek regulators were preparing to reject Binance’s MiCA application. Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) did not confirm the claim, while a Binance spokesperson said the company had not received any formal rejection notice from the regulator.
Binance had set up a holding company in Greece last December and submitted its application in January. In February, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng told Reuters that the company had chosen Greece as a suitable base for its European expansion after evaluating factors such as society, talent pool and security.
On June 24, Binance announced that it had withdrawn its MiCA application in Greece and would seek a license in another member state. The company said it had worked “in good faith” with the HCMC for months but had not received a formal decision on the process. In a Reuters report published the same day, it was also stated that Binance had held talks with regulators in Ireland and Latvia, but faced resistance due to the company’s past anti-money laundering penalties and complex international structure.
Gillian Lynch, Binance’s head of EU and UK operations, confirmed that the company had contacted four or five regulators, but said Greece was the only country where Binance had filed a formal application. Lynch said she did not understand why Greece might want to reject the application. She also stressed that Binance was not leaving Europe, but could simply look for a different path toward authorization.
According to a Financial Times report published over the weekend, Binance is now pinning its MiCA hopes on France. The same report said Binance users in France, Italy, Poland and Spain had received emails explaining how they could withdraw their assets. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao also said in a June 26 post that he was saddened by the EU cutting its users off from the world’s highest liquidity.
Rivals Compete for Customer Transfers
The uncertainty around Binance has also created an opportunity for rival exchanges. OKX, which received MiCA approval through Malta in January 2025, became one of the most vocal competitors. OKX founder Star Xu accused Binance of deliberately ignoring MiCA requirements even after the transition period. OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos also offered an 8% incentive for new deposits coming from Binance and non-compliant exchange Bybit. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made a similar move, offering a 5% incentive to Coinbase One subscribers in certain countries.
BitGo, a digital asset infrastructure provider that received MiCA approval from Germany’s BaFin in May 2025, is also trying to benefit from the gap. The company’s CEO, Mike Belshe, invited firms still waiting for approval to use BitGo Europe’s regulated custody and trading infrastructure.
The market had already been weak for some time, and the negative news flow around Binance led to roughly $967 million in outflows over the past week. This figure still marks some recovery compared with the nearly $1.5 billion in outflows recorded on June 24, the day Binance withdrew its Greek application. During the same period, OKX saw inflows close to the amount Binance lost.
