UK’s financial watchdog, the FCA has issued a warning on its official website barring Binance from operating and serving the UK customers. Per the statement,
“Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. This firm is part of a wider Group (Binance Group).”
The statement further highlights that
“Due to the imposition of requirements by the FCA, Binance Markets Limited is not currently permitted to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA.”
Binance.UK which is supposed to launch and officially offer a slew of products like offering UK customers the ability to operate virtual accounts would serve as a subsidiary of the Binance Markets Limited. For some reasons not disclosed by the FCA, Binance.UK didn’t receive the necessary regulatory approval to start operations alongside many other applicants. Binance Markets Limited, earlier on May 17, withdrew its application for regulatory approval chiefly because it could not meet the FCA’s strict regulatory guidelines even after an extensive conversation with the country’s top financial watchdog. It was however not only Binance that withdrew from the regulatory compliance application. At least 90 per cent of the applications did not scale through, some of which might have included high profile companies like Binance.
“The Binance Group appear to be offering UK customers a range of products and services via a website, Binance.com.”
FCA’s warning notice to Binance Markets Limited thereby mandates it stop advertising to UK customers and desist from collecting data on them. It also enforced Binance to publish a caveat on its website and social media channels saying:
“BINANCE MARKETS LIMITED IS NOT PERMITTED TO UNDERTAKE ANY REGULATED ACTIVITY IN THE UK.”
However, a clarification inquiry by Decrypt Media per FCA’s statement revealed that the ban only applies to Binance’s English incorporation, Binance Markets Limited, which Binance has not registered with the FCA. “UK consumers can continue to interact” with Binance Group, the wider, international collection of Binance companies that maintains no official headquarters. That means that Binance’s customers in the UK can trade on Binance as usual—nothing changes.
The global cryptocurrency exchange giant appears to be swimming in a potpourri of sanctions with regulators recently. Just a few days back, Japan’s FSA slammed Binance with a second warning. The FSA’s statement accused Binance of providing crypto exchange services in the country without registering with the FSA. The Japanese regulator’s latest warning was the second time Binance will be slammed. The exchange giant received its first FSA warning in March 2018 when the regulator warned that the exchange would face criminal charges if it continued to operate without a license. After Binance launched the TESLA and COIN token in April, Germany’s financial watchdog warned investors that Binance had contravened securities laws over its launch of trading in stock tokens. Another case happened in the summer of 2020 when the Malaysia Securities Commission declared Binance illegal. Binance, however, continued its company’s operations over there.