Lagarde Ghosted Binance's EU Passport at the Greek Altar 🛂

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally intervened to block Binance from securing a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) license in Greece, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the WSJ reconstruction, a vice chair of Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) told Binance that Lagarde had asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve the application. Greek officials had earlier informed the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in early June that the HCMC intended to approve the license, making the intervention a reversal rather than a compliance finding.

The reported motives center on Binance's 2023 U.S. money-laundering guilty plea and concerns that the exchange's dollar stablecoin scale could undercut the digital euro. Binance withdrew its Greek filing on June 24, days before the July 1 MiCA deadline, forfeiting passport access to roughly 450 million EU residents. The withdrawal leaves U.S.-listed Coinbase, which secured its own MiCA authorization, with a clearer path across the bloc's regulated market.

Binance declined to address the WSJ report. "We will not comment on speculation," a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph. "In Europe, Binance remains committed to operating on a long-term, compliant basis under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation." The exchange applied for a Greek MiCA license in January and said it would seek authorization in another EU jurisdiction following the withdrawal.

The ECB and HCMC did not respond to requests for comment from Cointelegraph by publication. Earlier reporting by The Big Whale had already flagged Lagarde's involvement, while mid-June online reports suggested the HCMC was set to reject the application before the WSJ account reframed Greece's stance as an impending approval. Separately, Deutsche Bank is awaiting regulatory approval to launch institutional crypto custody solutions in the region.