THE United Kingdom (UK) has banned Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms, from doing business in the country.
Binance Markets Limited, a subsidiary of Binance Group, is no longer permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the country without the prior written consent of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The FCA which announced the ban on Saturday, said Binance has until Wednesday to comply with the directive.
The regulator also ordered that no entity in the Binance Group holds any form of authorisation, registration or licence to conduct a regulated activity in the UK.
The FCA has directed the UK division of Binance to stop any form of advertising in the country by June 30. Binance was also given till the end of this week to show that it has stored records of all of its UK customers, ready to be handed over to the regulator if necessary.
The FCA also warned UK citizens to be wary of adverts online and on social media promising high returns on investments in crypto asset or crypto asset-related products as most of the firms advertising and selling investments in crypto assets are not authorised.
Reacting, Binance Group said that Binance Markets Limited (BML) is a separate legal entity and does not offer any products or services via the Binance.com website.
It said the FCA UK notice has no direct impact on the services provided on the crypto website, noting that its relationship with users has not changed.
“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,” it said series of tweet on Sunday.
Other nations crackdown on Binance
The FCA’s move came shortly after the revelation that Binance could no longer offer services in Ontario, Canada.
A statement on the Binance website said that Ontario had become a restricted jurisdiction. As a result of the development, users of the exchange based in the Ontario region were advised to “take immediate measures to close out all active positions by December 31, 2021.”
Canada and the UK are not the only nations making moves against Binance.
On June 25, reports revealed that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) issued a warning to the exchange about operating in the country without a proper license. This is the second such warning the FSA have issued Binance, with the first delivered in 2018.
Japan is one of the first countries to require exchanges to register with the FSA before operating.
Binance has also reportedly come under scrutiny in other parts of the world. Suspicious or unlicensed operations were reported in countries such as Hong Kong and Germany.
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