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

Greece has entered the European Union’s crypto regulatory register for the first time, with four providers added.

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.

Six other crypto-asset service providers from Germany, France and Slovenia were added, bringing the register to 359 unique providers.

The distinction of becoming Greece’s first MiCA-authorized provider could instead have gone to Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume. 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. The regulator has now expanded on that denial in comments to Cointelegraph.