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Binance's Greek MiCA license blocked after Lagarde's reported intervention
Binance's MiCA license in Greece stalled after ECB President Lagarde reportedly ordered rejection. The exchange now eyes France before the July 1 EU cutoff.
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Binance's bid for a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in Greece stalled after European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde directly ordered regulators to reject the application, according to journalist Gareth Jenkinson, who cited a source "reliably informed" of the intervention.
The exchange had cleared most of Greece's regulatory requirements and was on track for approval before the ECB stepped in, Jenkinson's source said. Lagarde has long opposed stablecoins, whether dollar- or euro-pegged. At the Banco de España LatAm Economic Forum in May, she called the case for euro-denominated stablecoins "far weaker than it appears," warning they could weaken banks' ability to lend and the central bank's control over interest rates. She pointed to Circle's USDC losing its peg during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 2023 as evidence of structural fragility.
ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel reinforced that stance at a Bank of Korea conference on June 1. Dollar-pegged stablecoins account for more than 90% of the $300 billion stablecoin market, she said, and would establish American monetary influence through "network effects, scale and first-mover advantages" rather than economic fundamentals.
The ECB's preferred alternative, a central bank digital currency called the digital euro, remains years from launch. A pilot program is not expected until the second half of 2027, and the currency is unlikely to launch before 2029.