Binance says most EU withdrawals went to self-custody after MiCA

EU crypto rules were meant to push users toward licensed platforms, but Binance says most departing funds went elsewhere. After the July 1 MiCA cutoff, up to 70% of withdrawals by Binance users in the EU were sent to self-controlled wallets, while about 30% went to exchanges authorized under the bloc's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework.

The figures came from Binance co-CEO Richard Teng and were not independently audited. Binance also did not disclose the value of assets moved, the number of users involved, the time period measured, or how the transfers were tracked. Even so, the split points to an outcome that may matter for exchanges competing for EU flows: regulation alone did not keep most of those balances inside the supervised exchange system.

That result fits MiCA's own design. Guidance from the European Securities and Markets Authority told unauthorized firms to wind down service after July 1 and named both transfers to authorized providers and self-hosted wallets as acceptable destinations. Users could leave Binance without moving to another custodian.

Binance is still seeking a route to EU authorization after withdrawing its Greek application, Teng said. For now, the episode leaves regulators with limited visibility on what happened after the cutoff, beyond data supplied by the company that lost the customer relationship.