17% customs clearance rate, who got the “life and death pass” to the EU crypto market?
By Claude, Deep Wave TechFlow
Original title: Europe's Crypto “Line of Life and Death”: Binance is blocked, who got the pass?
Guide to Deep Wave: MiCA, the EU's crypto regulatory framework, will be implemented on July 1. Out of more than 1200 licensed institutions across Europe, only about 210 have obtained CASP passes, with a customs clearance rate of about 17%. Binance, the world's largest exchange, suspended most EU services on July 1, and switched to France after withdrawing Greek license applications; Bybit Global simultaneously restricted EEA users and diverted them to the already licensed Bybit EU. Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Crypto.com, etc. held the pass, and the European crypto landscape was reshuffled.
July 1 marks the end of the EU's Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA) transition period. After this day, any crypto platform that wants to serve EU customers must hold a CASP (Crypto Asset Service Provider) license issued by the supervisory authority of at least one member state; otherwise, it is illegal and must stop operating. ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) has made it clear many times: there is no grace period, no extension, no intermediate status.
Either it's licensed or it's illegal.
With a customs clearance rate of only 17%, the world's largest exchange fell off the list
MiCA's true lethality is reflected in a number.
According to CCN quoting ESMA provisional register data, MiCA previously had more than 1,200 institutions across Europe holding VASP (virtual asset service provider) registrations issued by various countries, but as of May 2026, only about 210 companies had completed the conversion to CASP licenses, with a customs clearance rate of about 17%. More than 80% of the remaining institutions either missed the window, had no legal status before completing the process, or quietly left the market.
Binance has fallen on the side of the violation. It previously bet on Greece as an entry point into the European Union. In January 2026, it submitted a MiCA application through a Greek subsidiary. Co-CEO Richard Teng also publicly stated in February that Greece's talent reserves and security environment made it superior to a larger financial center. However, on June 16, Reuters reported that the Greek Financial Supervisory Authority (HCMC) is preparing to reject the application. According to the Financial Times, the barriers focus on anti-money laundering compliance and MiCA's “fit and proper” (suitability) standards for shareholders and managers. The core issues are the past legal records and corporate governance structure of co-founder Changpeng Zhao. The three regulators of Greece, Ireland, and Latvia have jointly followed up on this application.
On June 24, Binance voluntarily withdrew the Greek application before it was officially rejected, stressing that “no formal veto has been received” — the wording was deliberate, leaving room for subsequent re-applications. Gillian Lynch, head of Binance Europe, told Reuters that “Binance has not left Europe” and that the company plans to turn to France to seek a license, saying it can be obtained “within the next few months.”
For EU users, this means that Binance will stop accepting new users and limit some services in markets such as France, Italy, Poland, and Spain starting July 1. Binance promises that assets are safe and can be withdrawn normally, but new transactions and deposit channels will be cut off. Whether it can obtain a license through France within a few months is the key to Binance's return — and the French regulator itself has an unfinished investigation into Binance. If France approves what Greece is prepared to reject, it will also reveal differences in the scale of MiCA implementation by member countries.
For EU readers with Binance accounts, what they need to do now is pay attention to account notifications directly sent by Binance, follow the guidelines to process positions before the deadline, or transfer assets to self-hosted wallets and other licensed platforms.
Bybit also restricts EEA users, but the nature is the opposite of Binance
At the same time that Binance announced the suspension of service, Bybit also issued a restriction notice for European Economic Area (EEA) users, covering 29 EEA countries including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. On the face of it, it's the same thing; in reality, the direction is completely opposite.
Bybit obtained a MiCA license through the Austrian Financial Markets Authority (FMA) as early as May 2025 and operates an independent compliance entity Bybit EU (bybit.eu, Vienna headquarters). The platform went live in July 2025. It now restricts access to EEA users from the global site bybit.com and directs these users to licensed Bybit EU. In other words, Bybit is an “active compliance diversion after having a license,” and Binance is “forced to be suspended without getting a license.” Malta has been excluded from Bybit's restricted list because Bybit's EU license has yet to passport (passport-style travel) to Malta.
The difference in user experience between the two is also very real. Bybit EU currently focuses on spot, spot leverage, Earn money management, and Bybit cards, but lacks the global signature perpetual contracts and options — these derivatives require an additional MiFID II license, which Bybit has already applied for and cannot be used by EEA users until approved. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou (Ben Zhou) said bluntly in an interview with CoinDesk in April that MiCA licenses alone cannot make money in Europe. “We don't make money under our existing MiCA license, but we can afford it as a large organization; this is a long-term investment.”
For EU readers, Bybit users and Binance users are in a different situation: Bybit users are migrating to the same group's licensed platform (KYC needs to be completed again), and account continuity is guaranteed; Binance users face unlicensed platforms and service disruptions, and need to actively find alternatives.
Winners who got the pass: Coinbase, Kraken, OKX lead
The other side of license plate liquidation is that a group of compliance pioneers have obtained passes to sweep 27 countries.
According to the ESMA register and multiple media cross-confirmation, major exchanges that have confirmed licenses include: Coinbase (Luxembourg CSSF), Kraken (Ireland CBI and Luxembourg), OKX (Malta MFSA), Crypto.com (Malta MFSA), Bitstamp (Luxembourg CSSF), Bitpanda (Austria FMA), Bitvavo (Netherlands AFM), Gate.io EU (Malta MFSA), and Revolut, eToro, etc. MiCA's passport mechanism is its core appeal: with a license in any member state, it can serve all 27 EU countries plus the entire EEA market of Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, covering nearly 500 million people.
The geographical distribution of licensed institutions creates several distinct clusters. Luxembourg has attracted global brands (Coinbase, Bitstamp) seeking rapid coverage across Europe; Malta has become an exchange hub (OKX, Crypto.com, Gate) with many years of experience in crypto regulation; Germany is leading in number with 53 licensed institutions, mostly banking and brokerage institutions.
Not all major platforms have made it through successfully. KuCoin was blocked by the Austrian FMA in February this year and banned from the European Union; Gemini withdrew from Europe and closed the EEA account on April 6. These cases, along with Binance, show that MiCA treats large and small institutions equally, only distinguishing between licensed and unlicensed institutions.
For EU readers, the practical significance of choosing a licensed platform is financial protection: Licensed institutions are continuously supervised by designated regulators, must segregate customer assets and meet capital requirements, and users can seek legal remedies through the European Court of Justice and member state regulators. The license status of any platform can be verified within a minute in the CASP register published by ESMA.
USDT is locked out, European users must exchange coins before the deadline
The license liquidation affected not only exchanges, but also stablecoins.
USDT (Tether), the most traded stablecoin in the world, has not applied for MiCA's EMT (electronic currency token) license, so it cannot circulate in compliance on EU licensed platforms. Circle's USDC and EURC are the only MiCA authorized among the top ten stablecoins by market capitalization. If licensed exchanges continue to provide unauthorized stablecoins to EU customers, it will jeopardize their licenses, so mainstream platforms have successively removed USDT: Coinbase removed EEA users in December 2024, Crypto.com stopped in January 2025, Binance geofenced the EEA spot market in March 2025, and Kraken suspended USDT spot trading in the EEA during the same period.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino defended this, saying that MiCA requires 60% of token reserves to be stored in European banks, which is not compatible with Tether's reserve model and may trigger a banking and stablecoin crisis at the same time.
For EU readers holding USDT, the action before the deadline is very specific: exchange USDT for a compliant asset (such as USDC, EURC, or Euro) on a licensed platform, or transfer to a self-hosted wallet — it is still possible to legally hold and exchange USDT in a decentralized scenario, as this part is not subject to MiCA service provider rules.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/BitpushNewsCN
Compare the TG exchange group:https://t.me/BitPushCommunity
Compare TG subscriptions:https://t.me/bitpush
