Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been encountering some severe issues in the UK. With the country’s prominent financial regulator forcing the platform to suspend activities pertaining to derivatives as well as securities, Binance announced that its Faster Payments network was shut for maintenance around the same time.
The Financial Conduct Authority [FCA] took down the exchange and urged it to cease all regulated activities unless it garnered the approval of the FCA. The FCA announced that the reason behind the ordeal was related to the exchange not being registered with the regulator.
While Binance’s fallout with the regulator persists, the platform notified that Faster Payments was functioning again, and withdrawals were reactivated once again.
UK’s FCA urges Binance to make a statement
Last year, around the same time, the FCA issued a notice asking Binance to veer away from accepting or even promoting new applications for lending by retail customers through the operation of its electronic lending system.” This required Binance to put a hold on endorsements in the UK as it wasn’t registered with the FCA.
Shedding light on its status in the UK, the crypto exchange wrote on its website,
“Binance.com is a platform providing various products and services to global customers. Some of these products and services are regulated outside the UK, while others are not. Binance Markets Limited is a UK based company which has not yet carried on any business. BINANCE MARKETS LIMITED IS NOT PERMITTED TO UNDERTAKE ANY REGULATED ACTIVITIES IN THE UK.”
Binance seems to be drowning in troubled waters as the UK wasn’t the only region banning the platform. Towards the end of June 2021, the Japanese regulator, Financial Services Agency [FSA], called out Binance for functioning in the region without a license. While the exchange had previously assured that it would no longer serve the citizens of Japan, it continued to do so for quite a while. This enraged the regulators and forced them to issue a notice against the platform.
