Binance France to close all accounts on Dec. 31 and charge idle balances

What happened

Binance has emailed French customers to say their accounts will shut on December 31, Cointelegraph and Crypto Briefing reported. From November 29, any account still holding assets will be charged a monthly maintenance fee of 0.025% of the balance, with a floor of 10 USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Deposits are blocked from that date, and trading for French residents has already ended, leaving withdrawals as the only remaining service. Binance warned that crypto left after the closing date could be converted, transferred or otherwise processed. A spokesperson told Cointelegraph the firm is gradually restricting services for affected users on a schedule shared with them earlier.

What it means

This is the final chapter of an exit that began over the summer. The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, known as MiCA, replaced national licensing systems with one Europe-wide permit. Firms without that approval by the July 1, 2026 transition deadline had to wind down. Binance France did not get it, and a day later France's market regulator, the AMF, removed it from its list of registered digital asset service providers, Crypto Briefing reported.

Since then, services have been switched off step by step under supervision from the AMF and ESMA, the EU's securities watchdog. The new fee is a clear nudge for customers to move their coins elsewhere. For small balances, the 10 USDC minimum matters far more than the percentage: by Crypto Briefing's arithmetic, an account would need about 40,000 USDC before the 0.025% charge exceeds the floor. In practice, the real deadline for French users is November 29, not December 31.

Whether the same treatment applies elsewhere is less clear. Cointelegraph asked about reports that users in Spain and Belgium had received similar emails, but Binance's spokesperson did not address them. Binance's wider customer base runs to at least 300 million people, and EU users installed its app over 4 million times last year, according to media reports cited by Cointelegraph.

The timing adds to a difficult stretch for the world's largest crypto exchange. Its finance chief, Kaiser Ng, is leaving after more than five years, Cointelegraph reported, citing a Reuters account. That came little more than a week after hackers stole about $6.3 billion from Binance on October 29, the biggest crypto theft on record, which the exchange said it would absorb rather than pass to customers.

The bull case

The exit is orderly and was flagged months ago, so most French users have had time to move their assets. Rival exchanges with MiCA licenses could gain customers as balances transfer. For the wider market, clearer EU rules may build trust in licensed platforms over time, which could support long-term participation by cautious investors.

The bear case

Losing a market of France's size dents Binance's European reach, and the fees could catch out less attentive users who leave small balances behind. If similar closures follow in other EU countries, the exchange's footprint in the region shrinks further. Coming on top of a record hack and a finance chief's departure, the news adds to questions about stability at the industry's biggest venue.