The French authorities are intensifying their efforts to conduct anti-money laundering checks on cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Coinhouse. The authorities are trying to figure out which of the more than 100 businesses that have registered to offer crypto services in the country will get EU-wide licenses in the following months.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the French prudential supervision and resolution authority, or ACPR, has been checking dozens of exchanges since late last year. They asked not to be named because the process is private.
People said that ACPR officials are reportedly looking into Binance and Coinhouse, which are two of France’s so-called PSANs. One person said that as part of those checks, the regulator told Binance to improve its risk controls last year. Binance runs the world’s largest crypto trading platform and generates billions in daily trading volume.
“Periodic onsite inspections are a standard part of the supervision of regulated entities,” Binance said in a statement. During its inspection last year, Binance was told to improve its compliance and risk controls.
Companies in France have a deadline of June 2026 to get the agreement. The AMF has only given it to a few companies so far, such as the fintech company Deblock, the crypto company GOin, the French bitcoin savings app Bitstack, and CACEIS, which is owned by the French banking group Credit Agricole.
Strict regulations in France
France’s regulations came almost 10 months after EU-wide rules went into effect. The coordination of crypto enforcement across the EU is causing tensions to rise. Last month, France, Austria, and Italy instructed the EU’s top markets watchdog to directly monitor large crypto companies and enforce stricter regulations. They did this because they saw differences in how the rules are being followed.
At the start of October, the Bank of France asked the EU’s top markets regulator to step in and directly oversee major crypto companies that do business in the EU. This indicates a growing concern among the public about the industry’s monitoring.
François Villeroy de Galhau, the Governor of the Bank of France, had said that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) should be responsible for overseeing crypto businesses. This would ensure that rules are enforced uniformly across all member states.
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