On November 7, 2026, Binance told some customers in France, Spain, Italy and Poland that their accounts will close on December 31, that deposits are already blocked, and that monthly fees on remaining balances start on November 29. For anyone running a rebalancing portfolio, that changes the account itself: it can no longer be topped up, a fee can take quote currency and then crypto, and a deadline sits in the middle of the allocation. A portfolio on an account that is winding down needs its own checklist before the next rebalance runs.
This article is about operating discipline. It does not say that Gimmer supports or connects to any particular exchange, and it is not a trading signal or a recommendation to buy, sell, move or keep any asset. If you received a notice, the venue’s own message and terms decide what happens to your account. Read them first and follow their instructions.
What happened
In June, Binance published an update for its European users saying it had withdrawn its MiCA license application in Greece, planned to seek authorization in another EU member state, and would contact affected users directly about actions, options and timelines. Under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, a provider needs authorization in a member state to serve customers across the bloc. The firms that have it are listed on ESMA’s MiCA pages and interim register.
On November 7, CoinDesk reported that users in Spain, France and Poland had received closure notices, with Italian users posting similar messages. A Binance spokesperson said affected accounts “will be closed with effect from 31 December 2026” and that there was no sudden freeze. CoinDesk reported that from November 29 a monthly fee of 0.025% of the remaining crypto balance, or 10 USDC, whichever is higher, will apply. The fee is taken from USDC first and then from other crypto assets, with a second charge after December 24. Balances smaller than the fee are taken in full. Crypto.news and Investing.com reported the same core facts: deposits are blocked, crypto and fiat withdrawals remain available, and crypto left after December 31 may be treated as inactive and converted or transferred. CoinDesk noted that the dormant-account fee comes from Binance’s terms and had not been confirmed in the emails themselves, so check your own notice.
For an automated portfolio, that one notice holds several separate records, and each has its own date:
- Funding state: deposits are blocked now, so new capital cannot reach the account.
- Exit state: crypto and fiat withdrawals were reported as still available. Your notice confirms this, not a news article.
- Fee clock: the first reported charge is due shortly after November 29 and the next after December 24. Each one reduces the balances your portfolio assumes it holds.
- Closure date: December 31, after which leftover crypto may be converted or moved without your strategy taking part.
- Strategy state: what your portfolio strategy is configured to do, in which mode, and when it last evaluated a candle.
Common mistakes when an account starts closing
- Letting the rebalancer keep trading out of habit. A rebalance threshold reacts to drift without knowing why the drift happened. Fee debits, partial withdrawals and manual trades all count as drift, so the strategy can place orders while you are trying to take the account apart.
- Treating the quote balance as a cash buffer that cannot change. The fee is reported to come from USDC first. If your reference quote is a stablecoin, the buffer your sizing assumes can shrink without any trade.
- Withdrawing assets one by one without updating the strategy. Moving one asset out leaves the others overweight in percentage terms. The Portfolio guide warns that deposits, withdrawals, manual trades and other bots “can all change the starting allocation and cause immediate rebalance orders.”
- Assuming stopping the bot ends the exposure. Stopping a strategy does not necessarily cancel orders already on the venue or close positions. Those still have to be checked on the exchange.
- Leaving dust behind. Small residual balances below minimum order sizes cannot be rebalanced away, and under the reported rules a balance smaller than the fee can be taken in full.
A wind-down checklist for a rebalancing portfolio
| Step | Question | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Notice | Is this account named in a closure notice, and what dates and fees does the notice itself state? | A saved copy of the venue’s message and the date you received it. |
| 2. Pause | Have you stopped every strategy that can trade on this account, including other bots and manual tools? | Runtime activity showing the stop time; a list of strategies that used this connection. |
| 3. Open orders | Are any orders still resting on the venue after the stop? | The exchange’s own open-order view, checked after the stop and not before. |
| 4. Inventory | What does the account actually hold per asset, including quote currency and dust? | A dated balance snapshot from the venue next to the allocation the strategy assumed. |
| 5. Fee exposure | Which balances will the reported fee debit first, and which balances are too small to survive it? | Your quote balance, the fee rule from your notice, and a list of balances below the minimum fee. |
| 6. Decision | Will you wind the portfolio down on the venue, move it elsewhere, or keep testing it only in simulation? | A written decision with the date, plus a backtest or simulation of any new allocation you plan. |
| 7. Finality | Has every withdrawal or conversion settled, and does the account show what you expect? | Transaction IDs, the destination’s confirmation, and a final venue snapshot. |
Run the checklist with Gimmer’s Portfolio strategy
Gimmer is a desktop workspace for designing, backtesting, simulating and operating automated crypto strategies. It does not move funds for you and it does not handle a venue’s account closure. Its Portfolio engine is still useful here, because it makes the assumptions behind an allocation explicit and testable.
Read the allocation the strategy assumes
In the builder, a Portfolio strategy is defined by the steps the docs list: “Choose Spot or Margin.”, “Select the reference quote.”, “Add liquid supported assets.”, “Set target percentages.” and “Set the rebalance threshold.” Write those values down before you touch the account. That is the baseline you will compare with the venue snapshot in step 4. If you use Margin, confirm the long or short direction for each allocation too.
Stop first, then reconcile
The Portfolio guide states: “Before live mode, reconcile the exchange holdings with the portfolio assumed by Gimmer.” Apply the same rule in reverse during a wind-down. Stop the strategy, confirm in Runtime activity that no new evaluations are running, then check the venue for open orders. Stopping a bot does not necessarily close positions or cancel exchange orders. The exchange shutdown checklist covers that app-side and venue-side split in detail.
Model the fee drift before it happens
If you plan a new allocation on another account, backtest the whole portfolio and compare it with a passive benchmark that uses the same starting allocation, as the docs recommend. Use realistic costs: our guide to reading fees in a backtest explains why a few basis points per order add up when a small threshold creates many rebalances. The docs say plainly: “A smaller threshold can create more orders, turnover, fees, and tax events.”
Restart only in simulation
Run any rebuilt allocation in simulation first. Stale or partial balances confuse rebalancing logic, as described in our post on rebalancing after a balance-data delay. Consider live mode only after a healthy simulation, and only with an amount you can afford to lose.
A short example
The figures below are synthetic and do not describe any real account.
- A reader runs a Spot Portfolio strategy with a USDC reference quote and targets of 50% BTC, 30% ETH and 20% SOL, with a 5% rebalance threshold. The account holds about 2,000 USDC worth of assets and 8 USDC of idle quote.
- Under the fee rule as reported, 0.025% of 2,000 is 0.50, so the 10 USDC minimum applies. The idle USDC covers only 8 of it, and the remaining 2 USDC is taken from another crypto asset.
- Before November 29, the reader also withdraws the SOL position by hand. On the next closed candle, SOL is 0% against a 20% target, far beyond the 5% threshold.
- If the strategy were still running, it could try to sell BTC and ETH to buy SOL back, putting turnover and fees on an account the reader is closing. Because the reader stopped the strategy in step 2 of the checklist, no rebalance runs.
- The reader saves a venue snapshot, notes the BTC and ETH balances and the remaining quote dust, records the withdrawal transaction IDs, and backtests a new two-asset allocation in Gimmer before any simulation.
This example shows a process, not a recommendation to hold, sell or move any asset.
What this workflow cannot do
- It cannot tell you which accounts a venue will close, which fees apply to you, or what happens to leftover assets. Only the venue’s notice and terms can.
- Gimmer does not withdraw, convert or transfer funds for you, and it does not guarantee that any order will fill at a given price or at all.
- Rebalancing is not diversification by itself. Correlated crypto assets can fall together during a wind-down as at any other time.
- A backtest of a new allocation is a model. It cannot reproduce withdrawal delays, venue restrictions, partial fills or network problems.
- It does not replace tax or legal advice about moving or converting assets in your jurisdiction.
Risk note: Trading digital assets involves substantial risk. Backtests and simulations do not guarantee future results. Never share seed phrases, private keys, passwords or full API secrets with anyone, and never enable withdrawals on an API key used by trading software.
Frequently asked questions
Should my portfolio strategy keep running until the closure date?
That depends on your notice and your plans, and this article cannot decide it for you. A rebalancer on an account that cannot receive deposits and is losing balance to fees is working from assumptions that no longer hold. Pause it, reconcile, and decide on purpose.
Why does a fee debit matter to a rebalancing strategy?
A fee changes balances without a trade. If it is taken from the quote currency, the cash buffer shrinks. If it is taken from crypto, the asset weights move, and drift past your threshold can lead to rebalance orders.
Can I test a replacement allocation before moving anything?
Yes. Build the new allocation as a Portfolio strategy, backtest it against a passive benchmark with the same starting allocation, and then run it in simulation. None of that submits real-money orders.
Close the account in the right order
A closure deadline turns a running portfolio into a list of separate records: funding, fees, open orders, balances and finality. Stop the strategy, reconcile what the venue actually holds, and keep the evidence for each step before you rebuild anything elsewhere.
Next step: Review how targets, the reference quote and the rebalance threshold interact in the Gimmer Portfolio guide, then backtest and simulate any new allocation before considering live mode.
— The Gimmer Team