EU regulation continues being unenforcable

[alani123]

EU's regulatory arm just ridiculed themselves.

They made it such a point to regulate crypto, sold licenses through national oversight authorities, and somehow exchanges that operate without a license are still operating with full bank access in the EU.

https://www.amlintelligence.com/2026/07/binance-mexc-and-htx-accessible-eu-users-mica-licences/

The exchanges that didn't end up getting a license just straight up ignored the lawfare and continue working and systemic means of payments such as banks and cards are very happy to keep processing payments for them also. The EU continues to vote on legislation it can't and is unwilling to enforce once again. This ends up being funny after a certain point.

[bitbollo]

I don't know if this is strictly related but it seems Bitmex would close activities.
About processing transaction without a "license", at the end they are just moving the risk to the single user since it's their responsibility to provide all instructions to relative authority.
Here there is the problem (at least on my opinion). Crypto users are living in a juridical limbo pressed between two options - governments and big companies.

[NeuroticFish]

EU's regulatory arm just ridiculed themselves.

They were incredibly overconfident that the regulations will be properly implemented in the correct time frame and by everybody.
Of course, for various reasons, the time frame was too small and too early.
Some countries have pretty much nothing in place (I mean, not even to give the licenses and hence cash in whatever the related fees are). Some countries overstated their capabilities and schedule.
And yeah, this made that even major companies ended up without license when the time was up.

The rest of the story? I don't know whether it's lobby, or there's good will because of being late with the licenses, or the "enforcement" capabilities are also missing, but this is the result.
Imho it's a bit of all. You don't start enforcing the rules just like that because some tax paying companies may leave to somewhere neither the licensing nor the enforcing works.

Ridiculous? Yep. But aren't they ridiculous with their overall hostility against bitcoin in the first place? So nothing new.

[Z-tight]

Many of the services that failed to get the license within the transitional period are still actively working to get it. I don't think they are just freely operating illegally, because there would be consequences, i.e. very heavy fines. Binance for example have withdrawn their application from Greece, and are actively seeking authorization from another jurisdiction.

My point is, i don't think any service would risk the penalties they could incur for operating illegally. So, it is either they are slowly winding down, or they suspend certain activities for EU users in their platform, while they work on getting licensed.

[alani123]

Many of the services that failed to get the license within the transitional period are still actively working to get it. I don't think they are just freely operating illegally, because there would be consequences, i.e. very heavy fines. Binance for example have withdrawn their application from Greece, and are actively seeking authorization from another jurisdiction.

My point is, i don't think any service would risk the penalties they could incur for operating illegally. So, it is either they are slowly winding down, or they suspend certain activities for EU users in their platform, while they work on getting licensed.

Well if Europe remains such a fractured landscape for financial services I'd say it's likely we're seeing precedent of services being like "come at me bro" because local countries might not be so hot to enforce European landscape because locally they don't care about the slap in the wrist fines so they keep operating

[zasad@]

EU's regulatory arm just ridiculed themselves.

They made it such a point to regulate crypto, sold licenses through national oversight authorities, and somehow exchanges that operate without a license are still operating with full bank access in the EU.

https://www.amlintelligence.com/2026/07/binance-mexc-and-htx-accessible-eu-users-mica-licences/

The exchanges that didn't end up getting a license just straight up ignored the lawfare and continue working and systemic means of payments such as banks and cards are very happy to keep processing payments for them also. The EU continues to vote on legislation it can't and is unwilling to enforce once again. This ends up being funny after a certain point.

The European Union is very large and highly bureaucratic. When large countries with strong economies introduce regulations, other countries look for loopholes to legally exploit them and make money.
While these new laws create problems for large exchanges, a complete blockade of exchanges is impossible.