ECB chief Lagarde helped block Binance's MiCA license - WSJ
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde intervened to help stop crypto giant Binance secure a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in Greece, according to the Wall Street Journal.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde intervened to block Binance's attempt to secure a license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in Greece. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lagarde asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve Binance's application.
Although the ECB holds no formal licensing authority under MiCA, Lagarde's high-level intervention led Greece to stall Binance's application, which regulators had previously deemed complete. The intervention occurred in June, at the last minute, and was reportedly aimed at protecting the ECB's "digital euro".
Binance declined to comment on the reports of ECB intervention, instead stating that it remains committed to securing authorization in Europe. The company later withdrew its Greek application and said it would seek authorization elsewhere. Binance has previously pleaded guilty to financial-crime violations in the US.
Brief written by urgent.news from Finextra, CoinDesk, Techmeme, Cointelegraph, WSJ Markets — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
