MEXC’s withdrawal from European markets brought two developments on November 11, 2026, as the cryptocurrency exchange detailed how it will close French trading accounts and reached a scheduled asset-conversion milestone for customers in the Netherlands. The latest MEXC roundup covers forced position settlements, restrictions on fiat withdrawals, mandatory USDC conversions and the different custody arrangements for customers who leave assets on the platform.
MEXC sets four deadlines for French trading restrictions
MEXC published a detailed product-impact notice on November 11 explaining how its previously announced withdrawal from France will affect spot trading, derivatives, lending, staking and customer withdrawals.
The exchange will restrict affected accounts in four batches, beginning November 18, December 10 and December 31, 2026, followed by January 22, 2027. Customers are assigned to batches according to account information and receive individual notifications explaining their deadlines.
From each account’s restriction date, trading moves into reduce-only mode. Customers can sell existing holdings, adjust margin and close positions, but cannot open new positions, purchase additional cryptocurrency, initiate new loans or subscribe to Earn products.
The deadlines are staggered, but some of the cuts come for everyone at once.
EUR deposits and withdrawals, along with bank-card purchases through Buy Crypto, will become unavailable on November 18 at 00:00 UTC+1, regardless of the customer’s assigned batch. Cryptocurrency withdrawals will remain availble until March 5, 2027.
MEXC also confirmed that existing spot buy orders and pending conversion orders will be canceled when account restrictions begin. Automated trading strategies will stop, while spot selling remains permitted until January 25.
Customers who believe their accounts were incorrectly identified as France-linked can request a review. MEXC says submitting that request will not automatically suspend or extend the restrictions.
Open positions face forced closure in January
The exchange’s November 11 disclosure confirms that positions remaining open from January 22, 2027, will be automatically closed at what MEXC describes as a fair price, potentially generating trading losses or fees.
The settlement process covers futures, stock futures, event futures, copy trading and other outstanding positions. MEXC had already disabled new CFD positions for affected French customers on November 3.
For anyone still leveraged, that leaves a fairly awkward choice of timing.
Traders can close positions themselves before the deadline, subject to their account restrictions, or leave the exchange to execute the closure. Futures positions remain exposed to market movements and liquidation risk until settlement.
Outstanding loans will also be settled using collateral from January 22, with MEXC specifying a 5% handling fee on the settled amount. Remaining On-Chain tokens will be converted into USDT according to available blockchain liquidity, while unsettled stock holdings will be sold at market price or fair price where no counterparty is available.
Accounts enter withdrawal-only mode on January 25. Cryptocurrency withdrawals close on March 5, after which residual customer assets will be transferred to a regulated custodian by April 5, 2027.
Assets unsupported by the eventual custodian will be converted into USDC at prevailing prices, potentially changing the value customers ultimately recover compared with their original token holdings.
The custodian is promised, just not named yet.
MEXC has not identified the French custody provider or disclosed the precise post-transfer recovery procedures. It says those arrangements will be explained in a seperate announcement.
Dutch customers reach second USDC balance snapshot
Meanwhile, MEXC’s Netherlands wind-down reached its scheduled second balance snapshot on November 11 at 16:00 UTC, following mandatory conversions of assets that cannot be transferred directly into its custody arrangement with Kraken.
The exchange outlined the process on November 4, explaining that it would record remaining customer balances twice: once on November 7 before conversion and again on November 11 after the scheduled conversion period.
Unsupported assets, including USDT, MX and EUR balances, were scheduled to be converted into USDC at prevailing market prices before the second snapshot. Cryptocurrencies supported by Kraken’s custody arrangements would instead retain their original denominations.
MEXC says the conversions are final and irreversible, although it will not charge a conversion fee. The amount of USDC credited may differ from the value of the original assets at the first snapshot because market prices determine the conversion.
That second snapshot is the number to work from, not the first one.
It establishes the reference inventory for withdrawals after the scheduled November 16 transfer to Kraken custody. The published timetable does not independently establish that every individual conversion was completed at the expected price or that all resulting balances have been reconciled.
Customers are not required to open Kraken accounts, and their MEXC accounts will not automatically migrate. MEXC remains responsible for coordinating withdrawal requests through customer service, including temporary account access and verification of the second-snapshot balances.
This custody process is distinct from the previously reported MEXC Netherlands exit and Bybit EU referral arrangement, under which customers were offered the option of independently moving to a MiCA-authorized trading platform.
Kraken’s role concerns assets left behind, while Bybit EU was presented as an optional destination for customers actively transferring their holdings.
European exits expose conversion and transfer complications
MEXC’s withdrawal from France and the Netherlands comes after the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) reached the end of its final transitional period on July 1, 2026.
In its June 23 statement on orderly crypto-asset service wind-downs, the European Securities and Markets Authority instructed unauthorized providers to stop onboarding new customers, restrict operations to those necessary for closing positions or transferring assets, and clearly communicate automatic settlement deadlines.
The Dutch and French procedures also illustrate different treatment of residual assets. Dutch customers have a named custody provider and a published mechanism for requesting withdrawals after the transfer. French customers know the withdrawal cutoff and target custody-transfer date but have not yet been told which institution will recieve their remaining assets or how those requests will work.
Mandatory conversion can carry a financial cost without a stated platform fee. The realized amount depends on the execution price, the liquidity available for the original asset and the applicable conversion rate.
A comparable issue appeared in the Bitvavo dispute over compulsory Nano conversions, where a customer’s inability to withdraw the underlying token became central to objections about an exchange-directed disposal.
MEXC customers transferring assets elsewhere face another operational complication. On November 10, Binance announced restrictions on direct and indirect transfers involving MEXC-linked entities following a separate U.S. Treasury action.
Under the policy, incoming transfers from identified MEXC entities can be withheld for compliance review, while outgoing transfers toward those entities will be declined. DaveFinances previously examined Binance’s restrictions on MEXC-related cryptocurrency transfers and the potential account consequences.
A customer can be leaving one exchange and still run into another exchange’s checks.
The U.S. action followed the European wind-down announcements and has not been established as their cause. MEXC announced the Dutch withdrawal months earlier and the French closure on October 28.
For the Netherlands, the next scheduled milestone is the November 16 custody transfer, including reconciliation of USDC balances and subsequent customer withdrawal requests. In France, the first account restrictions begin November 18, while the identity of the residual-asset custodian and its recovery procedures remain undisclosed.
MEXC has not published customer counts, aggregate balances awaiting custody or execution data sufficient to independently assess the financial impact of mandatory conversions across either country. Those disclosures would provide the most direct evidence of how much customers ultimately recover during the exchange’s European exit.
Johan Shamshad is Editor-in-Chief at Dave Finances, covering financial markets, digital assets, trading platforms, brokers, fintech, payments and regulation. Since 2023, he has also worked as an editor at Gulf News, the UAE English-language newspaper published by Al Nisr Publishing LLC. His work focuses on market-moving developments, company disclosures, regulatory changes and trading infrastructure, with an emphasis on primary-source verification and practical context for traders and investors.