The U.K.’s top financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has cancelled several permissions given to crypto exchange Binance’s U.K. unit, as requested by the company. Binance Markets Limited had held several permissions from the FCA for activities that it never carried out or offered in the U.K., according to a spokesperson for Binance. The spokesperson said, As these permissions were unlikely to be required in the future, Binance Markets Limited decided that it would be prudent to cancel them in line with the FCA’s recommendations to keep these updated.
This decision has no effect on Binance.com, which does not own or operate any crypto services in the U.K. and is only available to U.K. customers on a reverse solicitation basis. Binance has recently moved to withdraw its registration with a Cyprus regulator, and announced on Friday that it was quitting the Netherlands after failing to obtain regulatory approval.
The company is also facing regulatory heat elsewhere, with its U.S. unit and founder Changpeng CZ Zhao being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the alleged sale of securities and operation of an unregistered trading platform. French authorities have also confirmed that the platform has been under investigation for aggravated money laundering since at least 2022.
The FCA said in 2021 that Binance was not capable of being effectively supervised, while telling its U.K. arm it was not allowed to carry out any regulated activities in the country. The regulator noted that Binance appeared to be offering U.K. customers a range of products and services via its website.
Following the cancellation of permissions, the FCA website said that no other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of U.K. authorization or registration to conduct regulated business in the U.K.