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1. What did Binance tell its European users?
Binance is telling customers in several European countries to move their crypto off the exchange before monthly charges start on November 29, with the affected accounts shut on December 31, 2026. Users in France, Spain and Poland have posted near-identical emails, and the exchange says deposits are already blocked while withdrawals stay open.
The wording of the notices, as users have shared them, sets out a short timetable. Customers are urged to withdraw their holdings, in both cryptocurrency and fiat currency, before the fee schedule begins. After that date, any balance still on the platform starts to be reduced by a recurring charge, and the account itself ceases to exist at the end of the year.
A Binance spokesperson described the step as part of a process in which the exchange is progressively restricting certain services following the end of the transition period under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA. The spokesperson said the closures take effect on December 31, 2026, and characterized the procedure as carefully managed rather than abrupt.
2. Which countries are affected by the Binance account closures?
The notices reach customers in countries where Binance previously operated through locally registered businesses. In June, the exchange first wrote to users in France, Spain, Italy and Poland asking them to withdraw funds, and those are the markets where the latest wave of closure emails has surfaced. Customers in Spain and Poland, along with France, report receiving the same message about fees and the year-end shutdown.
Users in Portugal appear to be in a different position. Binance had no local entity there, and Portuguese customers have not been singled out in the same way. They remain subject to the wider restrictions that apply across the European Union to providers without authorization.
The distinction matters because the national registrations that once let Binance serve customers in individual countries were temporary by design. Once those regimes expired, the exchange no longer had a local legal footing in the places where it had held one, and the notices follow from that change.
3. How much will Binance charge before accounts close?
From November 29, Binance will levy a monthly charge equal to 0.025% of the crypto balance left in an account, or 10 USDC, whichever amount is larger. The first deduction is due within three days of November 29, and a second follows after December 24.
Because of the 10 USDC minimum, the percentage rate only becomes the larger figure for balances above 40,000 USDC. For smaller holdings, the flat amount applies. Accounts holding less than the fee lose the entire balance. Users with small amounts on the exchange therefore have the most to lose from waiting, since a flat charge consumes a far greater share of a modest balance than of a large one.
Under the closure plan, fees are taken first from USDC holdings and then from other assets if the stablecoin balance does not cover them. Crypto that remains after December 31 will be treated as inactive and may be converted or transferred.
Binance has not confirmed the contents of the email itself. Its published terms of service do allow a dormant-account fee, deducted monthly, to cover the costs of maintaining inactive accounts, which gives the charge a basis in the exchange's existing rules.
4. Are customer funds safe and can they still be withdrawn?
Binance says customer assets remain safe and accessible, and that there is no sudden freeze on accounts. The spokesperson repeated that deposits are blocked but that both crypto and fiat withdrawals stay available throughout the period before closure.
In practical terms, that leaves affected users with a clear instruction: take funds out before the fee schedule starts, or accept that a share of the remaining balance will be deducted and that anything left after year-end may be converted or moved by the exchange. The company has framed the fee as a feature of account dormancy rather than a penalty, though the effect on anyone who delays is the same.
Customers who want to keep exposure to digital assets will need somewhere else to hold them, whether a self-custody wallet or an exchange that is authorized to serve their country. Users generally check that a replacement provider appears on the relevant regulator's register before transferring a large balance.
5. What is MiCA and why does it matter to Binance?
MiCA is the European Union's comprehensive rulebook for crypto-asset service providers and stablecoin issuers. It requires a firm to obtain authorization in one member state, and that single license then allows the firm to serve customers across the whole bloc, a mechanism often described as passporting.
Before MiCA applied in full, individual countries ran their own registration schemes, and several large exchanges operated under those national permissions. The EU regulation set a transition period for such firms to apply for a full license. Once that period ended, providers without MiCA authorization could no longer lean on the old national registrations.
Binance still lacks the license it needs to serve EU customers. It is absent from the register of authorized providers kept by the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA. In practice, that means the exchange cannot lawfully offer its full range of services to customers in the bloc until an authorization is granted, which explains why it is winding down accounts in markets where it previously had a local presence.
6. What happened to Binance's registration in France?
France's market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), lists Binance France's registration, which the entity had held since May 2022, as having lapsed automatically on July 2. That date marked the end of France's national registration regime for crypto firms.
The expiry was not specific to Binance. More than 50 providers that had not secured a MiCA license were removed from the French list when the regime ended, among them the European unit of the exchange Gemini. The French case therefore illustrates how a regulatory deadline, rather than a company-specific enforcement action, drove the change.
For French customers, the lapse of the registration is the background to the emails now arriving. Without a valid registration or a MiCA license, the exchange has no basis to keep serving local users through its French entity.
7. Has Binance applied for a MiCA license?
Binance applied in Greece, but it withdrew that application in June and said it would seek approval in another, unnamed EU member state. At the time, the exchange said it was confident of obtaining a license in the coming months. No authorization has appeared on ESMA's register so far.
The spokesperson now says Binance's commitment to Europe is unchanged and that the company is actively pursuing its authorization path. The exchange has not named the country where it will file, nor given a date by which it expects a decision.
The choice of jurisdiction carries weight because a MiCA license issued by one national regulator is valid throughout the bloc. A successful application in any member state would, in principle, restore the exchange's ability to serve customers across the EU, though it would not by itself reverse the closure of accounts already scheduled.
8. What comes next for Binance users in Europe?
The first date to watch is November 29, when the monthly fees begin, with the first deduction expected within three days. A second charge is due after December 24, and all affected accounts close on December 31, 2026.
Customers who have not yet withdrawn have a window of several weeks, but the cost of waiting rises once the fee schedule starts, particularly for small balances that could be erased entirely. Binance has said withdrawals will remain open until closure, and users are advised to confirm the status of their own accounts through official channels instead of relying on forwarded screenshots.
Beyond the deadline, the larger open question is regulatory: whether Binance secures a MiCA authorization in another member state and how quickly it can reopen to European customers. Until it does, the exchange's presence in the region will remain limited to what the rules allow.
9. Why do regulatory deadlines force exchanges to close accounts?
A licensing regime assigns responsibility for consumer protection, anti-money-laundering checks and reserve safeguards to a specific authorized entity. When an exchange has no such authorization in a jurisdiction, regulators generally expect it to stop onboarding customers there and to wind down existing relationships in an orderly way, instead of continuing indefinitely on an expired footing.
An orderly wind-down usually has three features: new deposits are stopped first, withdrawals remain open for a defined period, and a final closure date is set. Binance's notices follow that pattern, with deposits blocked, withdrawals available and December 31 as the end date. The monthly fee adds a financial incentive for users to act early, and it also covers the cost of holding accounts that no longer generate normal trading activity.
For customers, the key point is that the change stems from the exchange's licensing position and not from any claim about the safety of their assets. Binance has said holdings are safe and accessible, and the practical risk lies in missing the deadlines rather than in any freeze on funds.
Users in other regions are not covered by these notices. The emails apply to accounts tied to the local businesses Binance ran in France, Spain, Italy and Poland before the MiCA transition ended, and they reflect a cutoff set by European rules that other markets do not share.