Lagarde personally pressed Greek regulators to block Binance's EU license, WSJ reports

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde intervened personally to stop Binance from winning a Markets in Crypto-Assets license in Greece, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the process. The intervention sheds light on the abrupt collapse of the world's largest crypto exchange's attempt to gain an EU passport through Athens in June.

The Journal reported that a vice chair of Greece's Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) told Binance that Lagarde had asked Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis not to approve the application. She also wanted any decision held back until the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) takes over crypto licensing under a proposed EU reform that has not yet been adopted, the newspaper said.

The timing matters. Greek officials told ESMA in early June that they intended to approve the license, per the WSJ, before the application was rejected at the last minute. Cointelegraph, which covered the same report, notes that Binance had applied for the Greek license in January and needed authorization before a July 1 MiCA deadline. The exchange withdrew its Greek application in mid-June and said it would pursue authorization in a different EU jurisdiction.

The ECB's stated concern, per the Journal, was scale. Binance's reach as the largest crypto exchange could entrench dollar-based stablecoins in Europe and undermine the digital euro project and euro-denominated alternatives.

The exchange's own response was terse. "We will not comment on speculation," a Binance spokesperson said, adding that the company remains committed to operating on a long-term, compliant basis under MiCA and is actively working toward authorization.

The ECB declined to comment when approached. An ECB spokesperson told CoinDesk that the central bank has no institutional role in authorizing crypto-asset service providers, a power that rests with national regulators such as the HCMC. Cointelegraph reported that it contacted the HCMC and had received no response by publication.

The last-minute rejection appears to have come as a surprise to the applicant. In early July, Gillian Lynch, Binance's head of Europe, told CoinDesk the exchange had met every HCMC requirement. "We were deemed to have a complete application," Lynch said. "Nothing was missing, nothing material was outstanding."

The Journal also reported that ESMA privately advised national regulators to reject Binance's MiCA applications over the exchange's past compliance record. That record includes founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's 2023 guilty plea in the US for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which carried a $4.3 billion fine, a four-month prison sentence served in California in 2024, and a pardon from President Donald Trump in October 2025.