Binance France to Close Accounts by December 31 With 10 USDC Monthly Fee

Accounts Close December 31, Fees Start November 29

Binance France has told customers the end date: every account on the platform will be closed on December 31, 2026, and the French operation has already stopped accepting deposits. The notice, sent to account holders and disclosed on Friday, describes a business winding down in an orderly manner. “Due to the orderly cessation of operations, your Binance France account will be closed from December 31, 2026,” the letter states. Deposits in both fiat and crypto are blocked, so the only direction funds can move is out.

Balances left behind will not sit free of charge. From November 29, any account still holding assets owes a monthly management fee set at the higher of 0.025% of the balance or a minimum of 10 USDC. The first deduction is taken within three days of that November 29 calculation date, and the second falls due after December 24. Fees are applied to USD Coin (USDC) holdings first; where the USDC balance falls short, other crypto assets on the account are drawn on, and if what remains is smaller than the amount owed, the exchange takes the entire rest. The same letter sets the fee schedule, leaving customers one window to act.

The exit window is real but tight. Customers who move all of their crypto off the platform before the November 29 calculation date pay nothing, and any user may close an account voluntarily at any time. Accounts that still hold crypto when December 31 arrives are treated under Binance's terms of use as inactive, which the letter says may include converting, transferring or otherwise disposing of the remaining assets. No further deadline, appeal route or extension is described in the notice.

MiCA License Gap Behind the Exit

The shutdown is the endpoint of a licensing gap rather than a commercial choice. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA, closed its transitional period at the end of June; from that point, firms without an authorization may no longer serve EU users. Binance has not obtained one. The regime governs private issuers and service providers, a category separate from any central bank digital currency, and pulls exchanges toward supervisory standards closer to those of traditional finance.

Binance's route through the framework was convoluted. The company first sought authorization through Greece, withdrew that application on June 24 and refiled in France instead. Gillian Lynch, head of Binance's European business, said at the time that the group's long-term commitment to the EU remained unchanged. Supervisory attention then intensified: the Financial Times reported in October that the European Securities and Markets Authority and national regulators, France among them, were examining Binance's reliance on the “reverse solicitation” exemption, a provision that lets a firm serve a client who initiates contact on their own from outside the bloc. Binance said then that it was still actively pursuing MiCA authorization. No license has followed, and the December 31 closure date is the consequence the letter now makes concrete. For customers the practical checklist is short: withdraw everything before November 29 to avoid fees, or close the account outright. Anyone still weighing a venue for the moved funds can compare options in a Best Crypto Exchanges roundup.

The 10 USDC Floor Does the Work

The fee design, not the deadline, is the sharpest edge in the letter. Because the charge is the higher of 0.025% of the balance or the 10 USDC floor, every account below roughly 40,000 USDC pays the flat minimum, and the USDC-first debit order draws idle balances down in the issuer's own dollar stablecoin before any other asset is touched. The choice of billing rail is not neutral: pricing on USDC is kept tight by professional market makers, the asset took 79% of stablecoin transaction volume in Q3, and the issuer booked $865 million in Q3 revenue through Circle. For affected holders the arithmetic is simple: anything left on the platform after November 29 starts costing money, and small balances lose 10 USDC a month regardless of size. The first fee debit lands within three days of November 29.