Binance’s Reverse Solicitation Fight Will Decide EU Access

EU markets supervisors are testing whether Binance can keep serving European clients without a MiCA licence by relying on reverse solicitation, three months after the bloc’s deadline. The European Securities and Markets Authority has joined regulators in France, Germany and Greece in that inquiry, and people familiar with the matter said information requests have already gone out.

Fines are possible if the answers fail. The file is larger than one exchange, because other, smaller firms are in the same inquiry, and next year’s supervisory list already names the exemption.

ESMA Opens a File on Binance’s Exemption

Binance entered 1 July 2026 with no passportable MiCA authorisation. It had pulled its Greek application a week earlier and told users in several countries that trading, deposits and new sign-ups would be cut, with withdrawals left open. On 23 June ESMA told every unauthorised crypto-asset service provider to immediately stop onboarding new EU clients, drop marketing, and limit leftover activity to selling, transferring or closing positions.

The authority also said Binance went on allowing new account openings in some European markets after the Greek withdrawal. That claim is now the heart of the file. Reverse solicitation is the only remaining legal basis a third-country firm has for serving an EU client without a licence, and supervisors want to know whether Binance’s model fits that test or stretches it.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The supervisors: ESMA and national regulators in France, Germany and Greece are examining Binance’s use of the exemption.
• The requests: Some of those regulators have asked the exchange for information, and people familiar with the matter said enforcement, including fines, could follow.
• The deadline: Unauthorised firms were told on 23 June 2026 to freeze new EU onboarding before the 1 July cut-off.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The finding: No public decision yet says Binance has broken Article 61.
• The next licence: Binance says it is pursuing authorisation in another EU member state and has not named it.
• The other files: People familiar with the matter said smaller companies are also being examined, without naming them.

Clients of unauthorised providers do not get MiCA protections for their assets. ESMA has told users to check the public register and, if their firm is missing, to move coins to an authorised provider or a self-hosted wallet. ESMA and national competent authorities said they are engaged with the entities concerned and may take coordinated action, working with the European Banking Authority and the EU’s anti-money-laundering authority.

What Reverse Solicitation Allows Under MiCA

The exemption is set out in Article 61 of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation text. Where a client established or situated in the Union initiates, at its own exclusive initiative, a crypto-asset service from a third-country firm, the authorisation requirement in Article 59 does not apply to that service for that client. The same article then shuts the obvious door: if the firm, or anyone acting for it or closely linked to it, solicits, promotes or advertises in the Union by any means, the service is not treated as client-initiated. Contractual disclaimers do not save it. A valid first contact also does not let the firm market new types of crypto-assets or services to that client.

Recital 75 puts the same line in policy language. Services started on a Union person’s own initiative should not be treated as provided in the Union. Once the firm solicits clients or advertises in the Union, it should be authorised as a crypto-asset service provider. ESMA’s guidelines on reverse solicitation under MiCA, published on 26 February 2025 and applicable from 27 April 2025, treat the exemption as a narrow exception. Websites, apps, social media and influencer campaigns aimed at EU users count as solicitation. So do local phone numbers, EU-language sites with no other purpose, and geo-targeted ads. National supervisors were told to watch for circumvention, including letter-box setups.

ESMA expects unauthorised CASPs to take immediate steps to wind down their EU activities in an orderly manner, while also safeguarding clients’ interests and mitigating risks to market integrity.

European Securities and Markets Authority, public statement, 23 June 2026

The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets has put the same point in plainer words: providers cannot simply claim reverse solicitation. The burden of showing that each exempted relationship was genuinely client-started sits on the firm.

HOW THE TWO RULES DIVERGE

If reverse solicitation can support an exchange of Binance’s size as a standing business model, the licensing regime loses a large part of its force. ESMA has already said the exemption must not be used to get around the authorisation requirement, and that it should be regarded as the exception.

The Other Firms in the Same Inquiry

People familiar with the matter said the questioning is not confined to Binance. Smaller offshore desks are in the file too. That is the part of this inquiry that will outlast one brand. After 1 July, a third-country firm without a CASP authorisation has one legal route to an EU client, and ESMA’s 2025 guidelines already read that route as a keyhole rather than a corridor for volume.

Licensed European platforms would pick up clients who have to move. Firms that hired in-bloc staff, waited on the register and built custody inside the Union are the counterparties with something to gain if supervisors treat reverse solicitation as a one-off contact rule rather than a way to keep a full order book. Users who stay on an unlicensed venue keep trading without the asset protections MiCA was written to supply.

ESMA has also reminded firms based outside the Union that they cannot provide MiCA services to EU clients, including on a business-to-business basis, and that authorised CASPs may not outsource custody to unauthorised entities. Group routing does not sit outside that warning. An offshore parent that answers EU traffic through a non-EU book still has to show that each relationship began with the client, and that nobody in the group advertised the way in.

Why Greece Never Issued the Passport

Binance filed in Greece in January 2026, picking the Hellenic Capital Market Commission as its gateway for a licence that would have passported across the 27 member states. On 16 June it said its understanding was that the HCMC had finished its review and considered the application compliant, and that ESMA had also looked at the file. Eight days later it walked away.

On 24 June Binance said it had decided to withdraw its MiCA licence application in Greece and pursue authorisation in another EU member state, to be named when ready. It said no formal decision had arrived as the transition period ran out, and that user funds would remain safe. Gillian Lynch, its head of Europe and the United Kingdom, said Binance is not leaving Europe. People with knowledge of the process said the firm had also held talks in Ireland and Latvia and met resistance in all three countries.

Binance has decided to withdraw its MiCA licence application in Greece and pursue authorisation in another EU Member State.

— Binance (@binance) June 24, 2026

THE PATH TO THE PROBE

1. 26 February 2025: ESMA issues reverse solicitation guidelines, applicable from 27 April 2025.
2. December 2025: A Binance entity in Abu Dhabi holds authorisation, according to people familiar with the matter.
3. January 2026: Binance files its MiCA application with the HCMC in Greece.
4. 16 June 2026: Binance says the HCMC review is complete and the file was also reviewed at ESMA level.
5. 23 June 2026: ESMA tells unauthorised CASPs to freeze new EU onboarding before 1 July.
6. 24 June 2026: Binance withdraws the Greek application and says it will apply elsewhere.
7. 1 July 2026: The transitional period ends. Binance tells affected users their assets remain held on a 1:1 basis, with transfers and withdrawals still available where already communicated.
8. 28 September 2026: ESMA publishes its 2027 work programme, with reverse solicitation among coordinated CASP topics.
9. 1 October 2026: ESMA and regulators in France, Germany and Greece examine Binance’s use of the exemption.

Sources in Athens described a politicised process. The Greek government wanted the investment, they said, while advisers at the Bank of Greece raised concerns and the European Central Bank’s position on the crypto market was relayed as negative. People familiar with the Greek file also pointed to money-laundering controls and whether founder Changpeng Zhao would pass the fit-and-proper test after his 2023 Bank Secrecy Act conviction in the United States. Two people familiar with the process said Binance had offered to hire staff, open an office in Greece and bring billions of euros in investment. It was not enough. Binance withdrew before a formal refusal was issued.

Zhao later said political forces had moved against a bid he called compliant, and that two countries had wanted the application. He also said he had seen no official evidence tying the outcome to any named official. The withdrawal left the exchange without a passport when the 1 July cut-off arrived, which is how the exemption file opened.

Abu Dhabi Now Carries Part of the Book

In France, Binance stopped crypto trading after it failed to obtain a MiCA licence, and users there were limited to withdrawals. Local registrations in Spain and Poland also lapsed with the old national regimes. In countries where Binance never held a local licence, people familiar with the matter said the firm is treating activity as reverse solicitation.

Customers in other member states, including an Austrian user who described their account, are being served by the Abu Dhabi-regulated entity, which has held authorisation since December 2025. That user said nothing had changed for them. Some euro-denominated trading has been routed through that vehicle, according to the same people. A licensed Abu Dhabi book is not a MiCA passport, and it does not by itself answer the 23 June instruction to non-EU firms.

Europe remains an important market for Binance. Our commitment to operating under a clear, fair, and harmonised MiCA framework is unchanged. Our ambitions in Europe remain the same, and we are confident we will secure a licence in the coming months.

Binance, official account, 24 June 2026

The company has also said it complies with applicable requirements in the jurisdictions where it operates, that its products continue to be reviewed against those obligations, and that it is actively working toward becoming MiCA-authorised. On 1 July it told affected users their assets remained safe on Binance, held on a 1:1 basis, and that transfers and withdrawals remained available where those options had already been communicated. Co-chief executive Richard Teng said the firm remained committed to securing a MiCA licence in the coming months while keeping users informed directly.

If the Exception Closes, Licensed Desks Inherit the Flow

ESMA Chair Verena Ross told the European Parliament’s economic committee on 28 September that MiCA work has moved from rulemaking toward supervision and convergence. The 2027 work programme, published the same day, puts coordinated oversight of crypto-asset service providers on the delivery list. Reverse solicitation is already on that list, alongside outsourcing, operational resilience, liquidity and whether firms keep enough operations inside the EU.

THE 2027 CONVERGENCE LIST

• Operational resilience: Supervisors will test whether CASPs can keep running through outages and cyber incidents.
• Outsourcing: Group functions parked outside the Union, including custody, are in scope.
• Liquidity: Depth and concentration in the EU crypto market stay on the dashboard.
• Reverse solicitation: National authorities are expected to police the Article 61 keyhole rather than treat it as a standing visa.
• EU substance: Firms will be checked on whether they keep enough operations inside the bloc.

A narrow reading does not only squeeze Binance. Every offshore venue that still answers EU click-throughs on the basis that the user arrived unprompted would have to prove that story, client by client, or obtain a licence. Desks that treated Europe as a traffic source rather than a licensed market would have to redraw how they onboard, advertise and hold assets. That is already the practical question sitting under this file, and it will still be there after one exchange’s paperwork is done.

For now the inquiry is a request for information, not a verdict. Binance is still taking some EU business, still promising a licence in an unnamed member state, and still telling users their assets are safe. Licensed competitors are waiting to see whether Article 61 remains a door. The first major test of that provision is under way, and the answer will travel well beyond one logo.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a live regulatory inquiry and is for information only. It is not investment, legal or trading advice and does not recommend buying, selling or holding any crypto-asset or using any exchange. Readers should consult a qualified solicitor or a licensed financial adviser before moving assets or relying on an exemption under EU crypto rules. Figures, licence statuses and supervisory actions reflect the public documents and statements cited here and can change as the inquiry proceeds.