Greece adds first four MiCA providers as HCMC denies Lagarde-linked Binance claim

Greece has appeared on the European Union’s crypto regulatory register for the first time, with four providers now listed under MiCA. For payment and crypto operators, the more interesting detail is not the headline count but the split in supervision: Greece is already using its MiCA setup to divide responsibility between the HCMC and the Bank of Greece.

1. Four Greek providers — BCash, Xenios Blockchain Group, Capital Wallet Greece and Piraeus Bank — were added to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register on Thursday. Six other crypto-asset service providers from Germany, France and Slovenia were also added, taking the register to 359 unique providers.
2. Greece’s first MiCA entries show how the country has split oversight between regulators. The HCMC is listed as the competent authority for BCash, Xenios Blockchain Group and Capital Wallet Greece, while the Bank of Greece is listed as the competent authority for Piraeus Bank, a major Greek lender.
3. The structure matters because MiCA allows member states to designate more than one competent authority and divide responsibilities between them. In practice, that means licensing and supervisory pathways can differ inside the same market depending on the provider type and the regulator assigned to it.
4. The first Greek MiCA authorization could have gone to Binance instead. 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.
5. Nearly three months later, the Wall Street Journal reported that European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde had intervened to block the application. HCMC told Cointelegraph that no official made the reported remarks, that it received no communication about Binance’s application from Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his office, the Finance Ministry or other Greek government officials, and that “No HCMC official has had any communication with any ECB official on this matter, and none of the reported statements were made by HCMC or its officials.” When asked specifically whether the denial covered the report about a vice chair telling Binance those remarks, HCMC said it did.

Binance previously declined to address the reported intervention, saying it would “not comment on speculation” while reaffirming its commitment to securing MiCA authorization in Europe.