Binance might be the biggest crypto exchange in the world right now. They operate the biggest bitcoin exchanges and altcoin crypto exchange right now. It has an average daily volume of 2 bn and around 1,400,000 transactions per second happening all over the world. However, UK regulators have just told them they can’t conduct any regulated activity in their region.
The financial regulator, called the Financial Conduct Authority or FCA issued a warning to Binance saying that they “must not, without the prior written consent of the FCA, carry out any regulated activities… with immediate effect”. The warning was issued to Binance Markets Ltd, the exchange’s only regulated UK entity right now.
Warnings were also issued to consumers about Binance Markets and the whole of Binance in general. A spokesperson from the crypto exchange said that “We take a collaborative approach in working with regulators and we take our compliance obligations very seriously. We are actively keeping abreast of changing policies, rules, and laws in this new space”.
They also gave out a statement saying that Binance Markets was not yet using regulatory permissions and the FCA’s warning will not affect or impact Binance’s services on their website in any way. Will this move affect the market overall? It’s not hard to imagine that it will. Cryptocurrency is volatile by nature so any small change pushes investors hard to sell or buy.
Trading of cryptocurrencies is not regulated by authorities directly in Britain, but cryptocurrency trading services do require authorization. The FCA was warned Binance to display notices on their website and social media handles saying, “Binance markets limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK”. They have to this by June 30th.
While the regulator did not explain their reasons for these measures, they also demanded Binance to secure and preserve all records relating to UK consumers and inform the FCA of the completion of this task by July 2.
By the way, no FUD intended.