Binance Closes European Accounts December 31

Leave your crypto sitting on Binance after November 29 and it starts costing you money — 10 USDC a month, even if your balance is only $100. Binance has told users in France, Spain, Italy and Poland that their accounts close on December 31, because the exchange still has no licence to work under the EU's MiCA rules.

Key points:

Binance told users in France, Spain, Italy and Poland to pull their crypto out — deposits are already blocked, withdrawals still work, and the accounts shut on December 31.
From November 29, anything left behind gets charged 0.025% a month or 10 USDC, whichever is higher — and that 10 USDC floor bites hardest on small balances.
The cause is MiCA: Binance never won the EU licence it needs, while rivals Coinbase, Kraken and OKX already hold one.

What Binance told its users

The emails landed this week. Binance told affected users to withdraw their crypto and fiat balances, and said deposits are already blocked. Withdrawals still work, and a Binance spokesperson told CoinDesk the exchange is "progressively restricting certain services for affected users" after the end of the transition period under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets rules, known as MiCA. The same spokesperson said the accounts "will be closed with effect from 31 December 2026" and called it "a carefully managed process."

My own read is simple: This is a licence problem, not a Binance-is-broke problem — and licences do not arrive in weeks. Binance has known the MiCA deadline was coming since June, when it first told users in these same four countries to withdraw. Five months later, it still has no licence, and now the clock has a hard date on it.

Why does Binance have no MiCA licence?

MiCA says a crypto exchange needs authorisation in one EU member state to serve customers across the whole bloc. France's own national registration regime ended on July 2, and on that day the French regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers, recorded Binance France's registration — held since May 2022 — as lapsed. More than 50 providers without a MiCA licence were struck off the same day, including Gemini's European unit.

Binance tried the Greek route first and withdrew its application there in June, saying it planned to seek approval in another EU member state. It has still not named that country. Back in June, the exchange said it was "confident we will secure a license in the coming months." Five months on, it still does not appear in the European Securities and Markets Authority's register of authorised crypto providers.

Users in countries where Binance never ran a local business, such as Portugal, have not been singled out in the same way, according to Portuguese newspaper Expresso — though they still face the broader EU restrictions. The closure hits the four countries where Binance had registered local units: France, Spain, Italy and Poland.

The fee that hurts small holders most

Here is the part most coverage will miss. The headline number is 0.025% a month, and that sounds tiny. But the fee has a floor of 10 USDC, and the floor is what matters: 0.025% only passes 10 USDC once a balance tops $40,000. A $1,000 balance pays 10 USDC a month — 1% of the money, every month. A $100 balance pays 10 USDC too — 10% of the money, every month. The first charge lands within three days of November 29, and a second follows after December 24. Binance takes the fee from USDC first, then from other crypto if it has to. If your balance is smaller than the fee itself, the whole balance goes.

And no, this does not mean Binance is shutting down. The closure covers the affected European accounts, not the global platform — Binance keeps running everywhere else, and its token BNB traded near $696 on Saturday, up about 0.5% on the day. The market barely blinked. The real story is narrower and, for the people caught in it, worse: The world's largest exchange could not get a licence for the world's largest single market, and its users are the ones paying for the gap.

What to do before November 29

Two dates decide everything here: November 29, when the fees start, and December 31, when the accounts close. If you hold crypto on an affected Binance account, move it before November 29 and you pay no fee at all. After that date, every month you wait costs at least 10 USDC. After December 31, anything still sitting there may be treated as inactive and converted or transferred by the exchange.

Before you move it, check where it is going. The exchange you pick should already hold a MiCA licence — Coinbase won one in Luxembourg in June 2025, Kraken followed from Ireland days later, and OKX has held one from Malta since January 2025. That is the difference between a home and a waiting room. Keep your withdrawal receipt, too: The date it clears is your proof you beat the fee clock. And if Binance names a new MiCA home country in the coming months, that is the next date to watch — it decides whether these users ever get a way back.

One honest note: The fee details come from customer emails shared online and French crypto press, confirmed in part by a Binance spokesperson speaking to CoinDesk. Binance has not published a full public list of every affected country, so if you live in the EU and you are unsure, check your inbox and your Binance account notices instead of assuming you are safe.

— BitByLine News Desk

This post is news only, not financial advice. BitByLine never tells anyone to buy or sell crypto — that choice is always yours, and the risk is yours too. Always do your own research first.

Read our full Disclaimer.

Sources: CoinDesk, Cointribune, StartupFortune.

BitByLine

Search This Blog