European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde personally urged Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to reject Binance’s application for an EU crypto license, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by BeInCrypto.

The reported intervention came as Binance sought authorization in Greece under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, a regime under which approval in one member state can open the door to operating across the bloc. Binance later withdrew the application before Greek regulators issued a formal decision.

Greek application drew wider EU attention

Binance applied through Greek regulators for a crypto-asset service provider license under MiCA. Because the framework allows a license granted by one EU member state to be used across the union, the Greek filing carried significance well beyond the local market.

According to the report, Greek authorities told the European Securities and Markets Authority in early June that they intended to approve Binance’s bid. That expected approval appears to have prompted concern at the highest levels of the ECB, even though the central bank is not the body that grants MiCA exchange licenses.

Lagarde’s reported objections

The Wall Street Journal report says Lagarde pointed to Binance’s earlier US guilty plea over money-laundering and sanctions violations. In the account cited by BeInCrypto, those past breaches were treated as a major compliance warning as Greek authorities weighed the application.

The report also says Lagarde raised a second concern tied to the broader direction of Europe’s payments system. She reportedly warned that Binance’s entry could speed the use of dollar-backed stablecoins in the region, a trend she viewed as potentially undermining the ECB’s planned digital euro project.

ECB influence versus formal powers

Under MiCA, the authority to approve or reject a crypto-asset service provider license rests with national regulators rather than the ECB. In this case, the formal decision would have come from the Hellenic Capital Market Commission.

That distinction is central to the story. The report describes political pressure from the ECB president rather than a formal regulatory veto, highlighting how a licensing process handled by a national authority can still become entangled with wider EU institutional priorities.

Binance pulled back before a ruling

Binance withdrew the Greek application in mid-June, before the Hellenic Capital Market Commission issued a final decision. As presented in the report, the withdrawal ended the immediate licensing push without producing a formal public rejection.

The company also stopped marketing to EU users after missing the July licensing deadline. Based on the reported timeline, the next confirmed development is that Binance no longer has that Greek MiCA application pending, while questions around its path back into the EU market remain unresolved in the source material.

Source: beincrypto.com