Binance France to Close All User Accounts on Dec. 31
Key Takeaways
- •Binance France will close all user accounts on Dec. 31, 2026, with customers beginning to receive email notifications in early November.
- •Accounts still holding a balance after Nov. 29 will be charged a monthly maintenance fee of 0.025% of the balance or a minimum of 10 USDC, with withdrawals required by that date to avoid the fees.
- •The wind-down follows Binance's failure to secure MiCA regulatory authorization from an EU member state before the July 1 deadline, after which it restricted key services for EU users.
- •Unclaimed crypto-assets in accounts considered inactive after the December deadline may be converted, transferred, or otherwise processed under Binance's Terms of Use.
- •Binance has at least 300 million global customers and vowed to stay in Europe despite the licensing setback, but it did not clarify timelines for users in Spain and Belgium who reportedly received similar emails.
Binance France is winding down its operations in the country, with all user accounts scheduled to close on Dec. 31. Customers began receiving email notifications in early November, according to media reports.
Cryptoast, Crypto Briefing and other outlets reported on Saturday, citing emails sent to users by Binance, that any assets left on the exchange will be charged monthly fees starting Nov. 29. From that date, accounts still holding a balance will pay a monthly maintenance fee of 0.025% of the balance, or a minimum of 10 USDC, a stablecoin tracking the US dollar. To avoid the fees, withdrawals must be completed by Nov. 29, the exchange said.
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 If you have not withdrawn your crypto-assets as of December 31, 2026, this message constitutes a notification of our intention to consider your account inactive, in accordance with our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.”
Key services restricted in June
The closures follow earlier restrictions on Binance's European Union operations. In late June, Cointelegraph reported that Binance had notified EU users that access to key services would be restricted after the exchange failed to secure Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory authorization from a member state ahead of a July 1 deadline. MiCA, the EU's harmonized framework for crypto-asset service providers, requires firms to hold authorization in at least one member state to keep serving users across the bloc, and the July 1 cutoff marked the end of the transition window for exchanges that had been operating under earlier national regimes. Related coverage: Binance's EU services face scrutiny over licensing exemption.
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.” Though asked specifically about reports that similar emails had also been sent to users in Spain and Belgium, the spokesperson made no mention of them, leaving the timeline for users in those countries unanswered.
According to media reports, Binance's global client base counts at least 300 million customers, while the app was downloaded more than 4 million times in the EU last year. Reuters, which reported the figures, noted at the time that Binance had vowed to stay in Europe despite the licence setback. How that stated commitment applies to individual member states remains an open question as country-by-country wind-downs proceed.
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(Helen Partz contributed to this report.)
