Financial watchdog bans one of world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges from UK trade

The UK’s financial regulator has ruled to ban one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges from trading in the country.

Binance Markets, the UK arm of Binance Group, has been banned from conducting any “regulated activity” by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The authority has not set out its reasons for the ban, but warned consumers to be wary of Binance’s adverts, which promise high returns on crypto-asset investments.

The ruling means that Binance Markets is not permitted to conduct any regulated activities without the written consent of the FCA, with the authority adding that no entity of the larger Binance Group has any form of licence to trade in the UK.

This comes just days after the Binance Group announced that it is ceasing all activity in the Canadian province of Ontario, after regulatory crackdowns in the area.

The FCA’s ruling read: “Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. This firm is part of a wider group (Binance Group).

“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.

“No other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of UK authorisation, registration or licence to conduct regulated activity in the UK.

“The Binance Group appear to be offering UK customers a range of products and services via a website, Binance.com.”

In a statement on Twitter, Binance said: “We are aware of recent reports about an FCA UK notice in relation to Binance Markets Limited (BML).

“BML is a separate legal entity and does not offer any products or services via the Binance.com website.

“The Binance Group acquired BML May 2020 and has not yet launched its UK business or used its FCA regulatory permissions. […]

“The FCA UK notice has no direct impact on the services provided on Binance.com. Our relationship with our 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.”