Binance Closes Accounts on 31 December and Starts Charging Balances From 29 November: What the Notice Says

Binance has told customers whose accounts sit with its Italian entity that those accounts will be closed with effect from 31 December 2026, and that accounts still holding digital assets will be charged a monthly fee of 0.025% of the balance, or 10 USDC if that is higher, with the first calculation day on 29 November. The notice also says that assets not withdrawn by 31 December may be treated as dormant and "converted, transferred or otherwise dealt with" under Binance's terms. Press reports say French customers received the same terms. This article sets out what the notice says, works out what the fee means in euros and dollars, and lists what to check. It is not a recommendation to hold or sell anything.

The short version

• Closure: the notice says the Binance Italy account "will be closed with effect from 31 December 2026" and urges customers to withdraw digital assets "as soon as possible and in any event before 31 December 2026".
• Dormant treatment: assets not withdrawn by then may be treated as dormant under Binance's Terms of Use, which "may result in your digital assets being converted, transferred or otherwise dealt with". The notice does not say what the conversion or transfer would be.
• The fee: 0.025% per month of the account balance, or 10 USDC, whichever is higher, on accounts that still hold digital assets.
• Calculation days: 29 November 2026 and 24 December 2026, balance taken at 23:59 UTC. The fee is charged within three days after each date.
• Avoiding it: "If you withdraw all your digital assets before the Calculation Day, no fee will be charged."
• Deposits: restricted since 1 July 2026; attempts fail, and Binance asks customers not to try.
• Withdrawals: the notice says assets can be withdrawn at any time, as crypto or in EUR, to a self-hosted wallet or to another authorised crypto-asset service provider.

What the fee means in practice

Because the minimum is a flat 10 USDC, the percentage rate only applies above a balance of 40,000 USDC (0.025% of 40,000 is 10). Below that, the fee is a fixed 10 USDC per calculation day, which is a much larger share of a small balance. Our arithmetic from the notice's own rule:

The notice's own examples match three of these rows: 100,000 USDC gives 25 USDC, 100 USDC gives 10 USDC, and 5 USDC gives 5 USDC, leaving a zero balance. Two further points from the text. The fee is paid in USDC where there is enough USDC; otherwise it is taken from other digital assets "calculated as the USDC equivalent at the market rate on Calculation Day". And "if the digital asset balance available in your account at the time you are charged is lower than the fee to be charged, the fee will be limited to that available balance". There are two calculation days left this year, so a balance left in place on both would pay twice.

Two things the notice does not say, and we did not verify: whether tiny balances can actually be withdrawn given minimum withdrawal amounts and network fees on each asset, and whether the fee applies per account or per customer. Check the withdrawal screen for your own assets before the first date.

What else the notice says has already stopped

The notice lists a "reduction schedule" of services. As stated in it:

• Trading: no new spot orders since 1 July 2026; open orders were cancelled and trading bots ended. Convert allows sell orders only into EUR and USDC. Margin positions were closed on 1 October 2026 with remaining assets moved to the spot wallet.
• Earn: no new subscriptions since 1 July. Flexible products were returned to the spot account; locked products return at the end of their lock period; ETH staking (WBETH) and SOL staking (BNSOL) redemptions "may take longer than a few days"; RWUSD was automatically redeemed into USDC on 1 July. Flexible loan positions were closed on 1 October.
• Binance Pool and cloud mining: the mining pool service ended on 1 July and "no mining rewards have been distributed after this date"; anyone mining there should have pointed their machines elsewhere. Cloud mining returns assets at the end of each subscription period.
• Loans, Pay, launches, API: Binance Loans positions were liquidated on 1 October; Binance Pay transfers stopped on 1 July; Launchpool and Launchpad are closed to new tokens; API permissions for new spot and margin orders were revoked on 1 July and for loan and repayment functions on 1 October.

Who this applies to

The text we reviewed concerns the Italian entity. Cryptoast, quoted by ChainCatcher and PANews, reported on 7 November that Binance is closing French accounts on 31 December with the same fee and the same calculation days. We did not find a statement covering every EU country. Binance's earlier customer emails went to users in several countries, as we reported in our July article. If you hold an account in another EEA country, read your own notice rather than assuming these dates and amounts apply.

The notice also says MiCA-related changes depend on your country of residence, not your nationality, and asks anyone who has recently moved to update their verification details. It adds that, as part of the wind-down, the entity responsible for processing your personal data may change, with material changes to be notified separately.

Why it happened

The notice states the reason in one sentence: "As Binance was not granted a MiCA license by 30 June 2026, the services provided by Binance Italy are now progressively restricted". It adds that Binance "remains committed to securing an authorisation under MiCA to offer crypto-asset services in Europe". We found no sign of a new application being granted. For the background, including why the Greek application did not succeed according to reports, see our July article and our Italy report.

The scam angle

Account-closure and fee notices are an ideal template for phishing. The notice itself says Binance "will never contact you by phone", that communications go through "official Binance channels (app push or official email)", and that it will never ask for your password, 2FA codes or private keys. Treat any message about this wind-down that asks for those, or that links to a login page, as a scam. Open the Binance app or type the address yourself instead of using a link in an email. Our crypto scams guide lists the red flags.

What to check before 29 November

1. Read your own notice in the app or the official email channel, and note your dates and fee terms.
2. Look at your balance and any products still unwinding. Locked Earn products and staking redemptions return on their own schedule. The notice does not spell out how products still in redemption are treated for the fee, so ask support.
3. Choose a destination. The notice offers two: a self-hosted wallet you control, or another authorised crypto-asset service provider. To check whether a provider is authorised, see our MiCA guide. Moving to your own wallet can trigger ownership checks under the EU Travel Rule, explained in this guide, and the hardware side is in our hardware wallet guide.
4. Send a small test first and confirm it arrives before moving the rest.
5. Keep records. Dates, amounts and the notices themselves. How a transfer or a conversion is taxed depends on your country; see our crypto tax return guide.

What we could not verify

• The original Binance announcement page. We reviewed the notice text only.
• Which countries besides Italy and France received these terms and dates.
• What "converted, transferred or otherwise dealt with" would mean in practice for assets left after 31 December; the notice defers to the Terms of Use, which we did not review.
• How balances still in redemption are treated for the fee calculation, and the minimum withdrawal amounts for small balances.

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