Binance has notified users across France, Italy, Poland, and Spain that it will suspend services from July 1 after withdrawing its MiCA license application in Greece on June 24 — four days before the EU's hard deadline. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission never issued a formal decision on the application, submitted in January 2026 through a local holding company, and Greek regulators had raised concerns about Binance's AML controls and whether former CEO Changpeng Zhao could pass MiCA's "fit and proper" test. MiCA requires a single license from any EU member state to passport services across all 27 — without one, Binance cannot legally serve EU users. The exchange has told users their assets remain safe and accessible, and new registrations in the bloc have been halted. Binance plans to seek authorization through France instead, though any approval is likely weeks or months away. Only around 194 firms have successfully obtained MiCA licenses as of mid-2026, underscoring how many exchanges are scrambling. "Our ambitions in Europe remain the same, and we are confident we will secure a MiCA licence in the coming months," Binance said in a statement.
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Bitcoin touched $58,100 Thursday — its lowest level since September 2024 — before rebounding to around $59,700 Friday as the crypto market clings to a crucial support level to close out the first half. The bounce is fragile: derivatives data show rising stress across the board, with futures open interest jumping as traders add shorts, implied volatility and put skew climbing, and over $1 billion in leveraged positions — mostly longs — liquidated in 24 hours. ETH failed to mirror the bounce, dropping a further 1% and extending its losing streak to three straight days. Today's session is being heavily shaped by the largest quarterly options expiry of 2026: $10.6 billion in bitcoin options on Deribit expired Friday morning, with 80% of open interest underwater and bitcoin trading roughly $11,000 below the $72,000 max pain level — the sharpest sign yet that the institutional hedging playbook has been rewritten by ETF outflows. Deutsche Bank now forecasts two Fed rate hikes in 2026, reinforcing the liquidity contraction that has made yield-free assets structurally less attractive. Bitcoin is down 32% in H1 2026 — its worst first half since 2018.
Strategy's STRC preferred stock is trading around $73 — roughly 27% below its $100 par value — as investors focus on two events tied to June 30. The ex-dividend date lands Monday, with eligible holders receiving a $0.48 per share payment on July 15. But at less than 0.7% of the stock price, that's unlikely to move the needle on its own. The bigger watch item is the monthly dividend rate reset: with STRC's effective yield now near 15% and the stock persistently below par, investors widely expect Strategy to raise the rate from 11.50% to at least 12% or 12.50% to pull shares back toward $100. Strategy has held the rate flat at 11.50% for four consecutive months — a streak that has coincided with STRC trading as low as $64 earlier this month. The reset mechanism matters because maintaining STRC near par is critical to Strategy's ability to issue shares through its ATM program and raise capital for bitcoin purchases. With bitcoin itself down 32% year-to-date and MSTR down 43%, pressure on the STRC yield reset is the most immediate lever the company has to stabilize its preferred stock — and signal to the market that the capital structure remains functional.
