Two Months Later: The UK FCA Settled its Regulatory Issues With Binance

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has settled all of its issues with the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – Binance. The regulator published an update on August 25th to clear the company’s name two months after imposing restrictions on some of its operations.

• Back in late June this year, the FCA issued a warning shot against the exchange, saying that Binance Markets Limited “is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK.”
• The watchdog further asserted that the cryptocurrency trading platform was unable to “undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA.”
• Shortly after, Binance responded by indicating that Binance Markets Limited was not the entity offering derivatives products in the UK. The exchange also said that nothing had changed for users, and the watchdog’s notice had not directly impacted the services.
• All of this happened amid the growing regulatory scrutiny from global watchdogs against the cryptocurrency exchange.
• Now, though, the situation has changed. The FCA issued an update on August 25th informing that the problem has been handled.

• “On June 25th, 2021, the FCA imposed requirements on Binance Markets Limited. The firm complied with all aspects of the requirements.” – reads the updated post.

• Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, was quick to outline the development on Twitter, saying, “positive progress. One small step at a time.”
• It’s worth noting that the company undertook numerous steps to enhance its compliance efforts in the past few months. Those included hiring new personnel and rolling out mandatory KYC requirements.
• Interestingly, reports also emerged indicating that the FCA had asserted that it was still unable to regulate Binance, despite the ongoing risks associated with the cryptocurrency industry. Nevertheless, the FCA statement still says that the firm had complied with all aspects.