Regulations
By Dan Saada
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What MiCA Was Supposed to Mean for Binance. MiCA matters a lot for any exchange that wants to operate cleanly across Europe's 27-member bloc.
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A Precedent Nobody Wanted to Set. If political pressure can derail a compliant MiCA application, that's a problem that extends well…
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Binance's MiCA application was close. Then it wasn't.
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Changpeng Zhao — better known as CZ, the exchange's founder — says Binance had a fully compliant application sitting near the finish line for the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets…
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CZ's account leaves a lot of gaps. He hasn't identified which political actors allegedly intervened, hasn't named a country, a ministry, or an individual.
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So the stall hurts. It probably pushes back whatever European expansion plans Binance had mapped out.
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More context: EU Issues 230 MiCA Licenses as Germany Leads Crypto Approvals Across the Bloc
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The broader crypto industry has watched MiCA roll out with a mix of hope and anxiety. Smaller firms worried the compliance costs would squeeze them out.
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Binance isn't a small player that got steamrolled quietly. It's one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world by volume.
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Read also: ESMA Orders Unauthorized Crypto Firms Out of EU as MiCA Deadline Closes In
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CZ's hint that Binance's experience might not be unique adds another layer. He stopped short of saying other firms faced the same thing, but the implication was there.
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What's certain is that the MiCA application is stalled. CZ says it was compliant. He says it was close. And he says something outside the normal regulatory process got in the way.
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