Binance Faces French Anti-Money Laundering Scrutiny: MiCA License on the Horizon?

Key Points

• French authorities are expanding anti-money laundering reviews on crypto exchanges, including Binance.
• This could bring Binance closer to obtaining full MiCA regulation in the EU.

France is reportedly broadening its scrutiny of crypto exchanges for potential money laundering activities, with Binance being one of the platforms under review.

This comes as part of an effort by regulators to decide which crypto firms will be granted permits that are valid across the EU.

French Examination of Binance and Others

Details of this move by French authorities were shared by Bloomberg, stating that the regulators are determining which out of over 100 registered crypto service providers in the country will be granted EU-wide permits in the coming months.

The French prudential supervision and resolution authority, ACPR, is conducting checks on exchanges as part of an initiative that began in 2024.

Binance and Coinbase are among the Digital Asset Service Providers (PSANs) under review by ACPR officials.

As part of the review, Binance was reportedly advised in 2024 to bolster its risk controls.

The exchange has stated that regular onsite inspections are a standard part of the supervision of regulated entities.

Coinhouse, a French crypto platform, and the ACPR have not commented on this matter.

EU-Wide Crypto Enforcement

This move by France follows calls from financial regulators in France, Austria, and Italy for the EU’s top markets watchdog to supervise major crypto companies and tighten the bloc’s rules, after noting inconsistencies in the implementation of crypto regulations.

The EU started implementing its MiCA framework for crypto in late 2024.

These reviews involve checking the compliance of companies with the conditions of their registration as a provider of crypto services and testing the implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls.

In 2024, Binance was asked to strengthen compliance and risk controls, hire more staff in compliance/risk sectors, and enhance the security of its IT systems.

The ACPR typically gives companies a few months to comply with these demands.

Review Process

The data collected by the ACPR is shared with the French Financial Markets Authority.

Failure to address the ACPR’s findings could lead to sanctions for the crypto entity and jeopardize the entity’s ability to obtain the MiCA license from France, which allows the company to offer crypto services in the EU.

In France, crypto entities have until the end of June 2026 to obtain the MiCA agreement. So far, only a few platforms have secured it, including Deblock fintech firm, GOin crypto company, Bitstack BTC savings app, and French banking group Credit Agricole.

Potential Full MiCA Regulation for Binance

If the regulators’ reviews of Binance find no issues and the exchange complies fully with all the demands, Binance could become fully MiCA-regulated across the EU.

Coinbase has already obtained its MiCA license this year.

Under the new CEO, Richard Teng, Binance has been making efforts to strengthen compliance rules, enhance security, and collaborate with global authorities over the past years.

The exchange also plans to delist non-MiCA compliance stablecoins such as USDT, DAI, and more for EEA users as of March 31, 2025, to comply with MiCA rules.

Binance has been adjusting its services for EU users to align with the new crypto framework in the region, and a successful French review could move the exchange closer to full MiCA regulation.