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Britain’s financial regulator has approved a request by Binance to cancel its regulatory permissions in the United Kingdom. The move comes as the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange takes steps to focus on fewer European markets amid increased scrutiny from regulators and ahead of Europe’s new crypto rules.
Binance’s subsidiary in Britain, Binance Markets Limited (BML), has recently filed a cancellation request for its regulatory authorization. On June 7, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced the request was completed on May 30, 2023.
According the FCA’s Financial Services Register, the entity, which was previously authorized by the regulator, “can no longer provide regulated activities and products.” In an update on its interactions with the company, the Authority stated:
Following the completion of the cancellation of permissions the firm is no longer authorized by the FCA.
No other entity in the Binance Group, except Binance Markets Limited, holds any form of authorization or registration to conduct regulated business in the United Kingdom, according to the exchange’s listing on the FCA website.
Even before the cancellation, BML was not operating in the U.K. as on June 25, 2021 the FCA imposed certain requirements which prohibited the company from carrying out any regulated activities without its prior written consent.
At the same time, “the Binance Group appear to be offering U.K. customers a range of products and services via a website, Binance.com,” the Authority remarked in its supervisory notice two years ago. It has since warned Brits against trading on the exchange.
The news of the cancelled license comes when the world’s largest crypto exchange finds itself under increased scrutiny by regulatory bodies in various jurisdictions. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the entities operating its American subsidiary for violating securities laws. Binance US recently avoided the freezing of its assets thanks to a deal with the SEC.
In Europe, Binance has been taking steps to reduce its footprint in terms of maintaining a number of subsidiaries seeking regulated status in multiple jurisdictions, ahead of the implementation of the European Union’s newly adopted Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. The exchange said it intends to focus on some regulated units in EU countries such those in France, Italy, and Spain.
Last week, Binance announced it’s exiting the Dutch market as it has been unable to register as a crypto service provider. It had been fined by the central bank of the Netherlands for operating without registration. Earlier, Binance’s entity in Cyprus applied to be removed from the country’s register of digital asset service providers.
