When the EU's MiCA transition deadline reshaped the European crypto market on July 1, the big question was simple: where would displaced users go? Binance has now offered an answer — and it is not the one Brussels was hoping for. Here is what the numbers show and why licensed regulated crypto exchanges are throwing serious money at anyone willing to move.
What Did Binance's CEO Reveal About EU Users?
Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore on July 9, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng dropped a striking statistic. Of the EU users who withdrew funds from the platform after the MiCA transition, roughly 70% moved their crypto into self-hosted wallets, while only about 30% flowed to MiCA-regulated entities.
Teng, a former regulator himself, framed it as a warning shot at the EU. His argument: pushing users toward self-hosted wallets actually undercuts the consumer protection MiCA was designed to deliver, because non-custodial wallets fall outside the AML and KYC controls that licensed exchanges must run. In his words, once crypto goes into a self-hosted wallet, the risks amplify rather than shrink.
The claim has been widely reported by Cointelegraph, Reuters, Yahoo ...
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