The fallout for Dutch investors from a record cyber attack at Binance—the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange—is expected to be very small, according to local industry experts.
Mauro Halve, chairman of the Dutch Association of Crypto Service Providers (NVC), explained that Binance has been prohibited from operating in the Netherlands since 2023. Because the platform failed to secure a permit from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), standard Dutch payment systems like iDEAL are completely unavailable and major Dutch banks actively block money transfers to the exchange. As a result, very few Dutch residents are still able to trade on the platform today.
The exchange was forced to freeze billions of dollars in assets and temporarily pause all customer withdrawals after suffering a massive security breach involving at least $6 billion. Although Binance was once immensely popular in the Netherlands—holding a large market share before its forced exit—these regulatory barriers have largely shielded local crypto traders from the fallout of what is being called the largest crypto heist on record.
Following the breach, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) urged investors to always verify whether their crypto platform holds a valid European licence. Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), licensed platforms must adhere to strict safety standards, whereas trading on unlicensed platforms leaves investors with no legal protection or regulatory oversight when security breaches occur.
@anp | NEWS BRAINPORT
