- German financial regulator rejected Binance's custody license application in June
- Binance will apply again in the future
Binance has confirmed withdrawal of its cryptocurrency custody license application in Germany, Cointelegraph reported. This has happened almost a month after rejections from The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) were reported.
BaFin rejected the crypto exchange’s custody license application at the end of June. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether the regulator had only informed Binance verbally of this or officially denied its application.
Exchange will amend application and try again
A Binance spokesperson said the exchange intended to apply for a license in Germany again in the future. It will make changes to its application to reflect events and occurrences in the regulatory environment. The spokesperson said the regulatory and global market situation had changed a great deal and the exchange would need to submit another application that reflected the changes accurately.
Compliance efforts in EU parallel US regulatory issues
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao assured the exchange would focus on becoming compliant with the EU’s new Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations to provide services in EU member states. However, its plans to expand its activity in Europe seem to have suffered a setback in the context of issues with US regulators.
Binance’s US arm and its CEO have been charged with selling unregistered securities in the form of BUSD and BNB, among other transgressions, by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Trouble in Europe
French authorities have been investigating Binance since the beginning of last year. Before withdrawing its application in Germany, Binance exited the Dutch market. Dutch regulators declined to issue a virtual asset service provider license (VASP).
According to the exchange, it made many attempts to serve customers in the Netherlands in compliance with the country’s laws, but there were no alternative “avenues” to VASP registration. Binance also wound down its services in the United Kingdom and Cyprus.
Israeli authorities seize Binance accounts
In early May, Reuters reported that Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) had seized hundreds of crypto accounts at Binance in the past two years, including two allegedly connected to ISIS and Hamas.
