Binance France Packs Its Bags as User Accounts Lock on Dec. 31 🎒

Binance France will close all customer accounts on Dec. 31, according to emails sent to users and reported by Cryptoast, Crypto Briefing and other media outlets during early November. Customers were notified by email on Saturday, with any crypto-assets remaining on the exchange subject to monthly maintenance fees beginning Nov. 29.

Accounts with a balance on Nov. 29 will be charged a monthly maintenance fee of 0.025% of the balance, or a minimum of 10 USDC, a stablecoin tracking the US dollar. Binance said customers must withdraw their crypto-assets by Nov. 29 to avoid the fees.

A Binance email cited by Cryptoast stated: “Due to the orderly cessation of activities, your Binance France account will close as of December 31, 2026. If you have not withdrawn your crypto-assets as of December 31, 2026, this message constitutes a notification of our intention to consider your account inactive, in accordance with our Terms of Use. This can result in the conversion, transfer or other processing of your crypto-assets.”

The closure follows restrictions announced in late June after Binance failed to secure Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory authorization from a member state before a July 1 deadline, according to Cointelegraph. On Sunday, a Binance spokesperson responded to a Cointelegraph query, saying, “Following the end of the MiCA transition period, Binance is progressively restricting certain services for affected users, in line with the schedule previously communicated to them.” The spokesperson did not address reports that similar emails had been sent to users in Spain and Belgium.

Media reports put Binance’s global client base at at least 300 million customers, while its app was downloaded more than 4 million times in the EU last year.