European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde intervened to block B from operating in the European Union, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The newspaper reported on Thursday that the top crypto exchange was on the cusp of operating in the trading bloc before being told it could not proceed after the central bank chief weighed in.

EU law requires that local Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) hold a license under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation — a framework administered by national regulators in individual member states rather than by the ECB, with approval in one country granting passporting rights across the entire bloc. Binance does not have one. In June, the exchange withdrew its MiCA application in Greece.

"Lagarde wanted to keep the controversial crypto exchange, which pleaded guilty to financial-crime violations in the U.S., out of the European Union," the newspaper reported, citing interviews with officials.

Lagarde has long been critical of Bitcoin and supportive of central bank digital currencies. Back in 2021, she described the leading cryptocurrency as "a highly speculative asset" used for money laundering. She has also criticized cryptocurrencies as a whole and said central banks would never hold bitcoin.

On CBDCs, however, Lagarde takes a different approach. A CBDC is a digital form of fiat money, such as the U.S. dollar or the euro, and nations around the world are at different stages of researching and releasing them.

The EU under Lagarde is moving quickly forward with a digital euro, which she has described as key to Europe's financial autonomy while taking aim at privately issued stablecoins.

CBDCs have been criticized by bitcoiners and others in the crypto industry, who believe they could be used to surveil citizens. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning CBDCs when he took office.

The WSJ report added, citing various interviews, that Lagarde was worried Binance would embed the dominance of dollar-based stablecoins in Europe instead of encouraging euro counterparts. Binance is the world's biggest crypto exchange, and billions of dollars in stablecoins are traded on its platform daily. Dollar-pegged tokens dominate global stablecoin trading, while euro-denominated alternatives account for only a small fraction of the market.

Binance has a controversial history. In 2023, the company and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering violations and paid a record $4.3 billion fine.

In June, Binance said it was still working to pursue MiCA authorization in another EU Member State. MiCA's licensing provisions took full effect at the end of 2024, and transition periods for firms previously operating under national rules expire no later than mid-2026, so how regulators in individual member states handle outstanding applications will help determine which exchanges can legally serve customers across the bloc.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.