A ban has been placed on Binance Exchange, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the country’s financial “police”.
Reports say the action taken by FCA is one of the most significant moves any global regulator has made against Binance Exchange. Binance Exchange has until Wednesday evening to confirm it has complied with the demands of the FCA and remove all its advertising.
The FCA also issued a consumer warning against both the Binance holdings company and Binance Markets Limited, which is a London-based affiliate that is controlled by CEO, Changpeng Zhao and is overseen by the UK regulator.
According to the FCA, Binance Markets Limited, which was established a year ago by the parent company to launch a UK-focused exchange, Binance UK, is not approved under the FCA’s cryptocurrency registration regime, which is required for UK groups offering digital asset services.
The FCA stated, “Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. No other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of UK authorisation, registration or licence to conduct a regulated activity in the UK.”
Further to the order from the FCA, the regulator ordered Binance to display on its website that, “BINANCE MARKETS LIMITED IS NOT PERMITTED TO UNDERTAKE ANY REGULATED ACTIVITY IN THE UK.”
The FCA’s decision comes after Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) warned last week that Binance was conducting unauthorised trade in cryptocurrencies with Japanese citizens. It is the second time the FSA has warned about Binance after publishing an identical notice in 2018.
