Binance chief executive Richard Teng said about 70% of assets withdrawn by European users after the exchange’s EU services were curtailed moved to self-hosted wallets, not to other regulated trading venues. He added that only about 30% went to exchanges holding MiCA licenses.
The comments, made at the Reuters NEXT Asia conference on July 9, put a number on the post-MiCA exodus from Binance’s European arm. The exchange’s transition period under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regime ended on July 1, after which Binance could no longer provide services normally across the bloc. Binance also pulled its MiCA license application in Greece on June 24.
That shift has left regulators and exchanges watching where the money actually goes. Teng said the pattern may sit uneasily with MiCA’s stated aim of pushing crypto activity into supervised venues. If users move from licensed exchanges to self-hosted wallets, oversight becomes thinner, because those wallets sit outside the same exchange framework.
The timing lines up with a sharp jump in withdrawals. Binance recorded about $1.23 billion of net outflows in the week beginning June 29, a 207% increase from the previous week, according to the source cited by Crypto Briefing. The move appears driven by the regulatory change rather than a market selloff or a security problem.
Teng also said regulators in several EU member states have approached Binance about local licensing. Even so, the company is looking farther afield. Binance plans to focus on expansion in Asia rather than Europe, a reminder that the continent’s tougher rulebook is already reshaping where the exchange wants to grow next.
Binance reports 70% of European user withdrawals moved to private wallets after EU rules change
After stricter European crypto regulations began, most Binance users in Europe withdrew their funds to private wallets instead of licensed exchanges. This shift reduces regulatory oversight because private wallets are not directly supervised.