Greece gets first MiCA entrants as watchdog denies Binance-Lagarde claim

What happened

Greece joined the EU MiCA register with four providers as HCMC expanded its denial of remarks attributed to officials in a report on Binance. Greece has entered the European Union’s crypto regulatory register for the first time, with four providers added. Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange and financial services company based in United Arab Emirates.

Six other crypto-asset service providers from Germany, France and Slovenia were added, bringing the register to 359 unique providers. Four Greek providers — BCash, Xenios Blockchain Group, Capital Wallet Greece and Piraeus Bank — appeared on the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register updated Thursday.

A Greek authorization would have allowed Binance to offer services throughout the EU under MiCA’s passporting system, but the exchange withdrew its application on June 24 before the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) issued a formal decision. Nearly three months later, the Wall Street Journal reported that European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde had intervened to block the application . The Journal said HCMC denied that its officials made the comments attributed to them but did not elaborate.