Crypto giant Binance opened a regional hub in Paris last year, hoping to expand its business in Europe. However, things did not go as he wanted.
Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Is In Trouble In Europe
The Netherlands and Belgium closed their doors to the stock market. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has yet to issue a license to operate.
French prosecutors also recently searched the exchange’s office as part of an investigation into money laundering controls.
According to research firm Kaiko, Binance’s share of Euro-denominated crypto trading has dropped from over 30% in January to around 15%.
Regulators have shifted gears this year, starting to scrutinize the operations of crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX.
European regulators’ tougher stance threatens to further narrow Binance’s footprint and force it to rely more and more on markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
According to May data from analytics firm SimilarWeb, although France, Germany and the Netherlands are in the top 25, countries such as Vietnam, Turkey, India and Argentina already attract the highest user traffic on Binance.
The setbacks add to Binance’s troubles in the US, where it is battling a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission and an ongoing criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
A Binance spokesperson said the company is focused on meeting the requirements of a new European Union legislation that will govern digital asset companies in 27 member states, which is expected to go into effect next year.
In the meantime, “we continue to work to proactively comply with our requirements,” he said.
Crypto firms are excited about the new EU legislation called MiCA, as it will allow companies authorized in one member state to offer services in all of them.
But Chainalysis spokesperson Trenton Kennedy said there are provisions for countries to ban crypto businesses if their regulators consider it a risk to their users.
*Not investment advice.
