The FCA, who is responsible for the  U.K. financial markets functioning has ordered Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, to cease carrying out any regulated activity in the U.K.

A supervisory notice was issued by the FCA dated June 25 and made public on Wednesday. According to this notice, the regulator had asked Binance to stop carrying out all the regulated activity in its UK arm. They have also told Binance to display in a prominent place on their official website, binance.com, that they are not permitted to do so. The notice has also demanded an end to any advertising and financial promotions from Binance end in the UK. 

The FCA had said "On 25 June 2021, the FCA imposed requirements on Binance Markets Limited. The firm complied with all aspects of the requirements."

The FCA claims that Binance’s response to its question regarding money laundering and terrorist financing regulations was incomplete and considered that Binance had refused to provide any necessary information in the formal matters.

The regulator also highlights Binance’s incapability of being effectively supervised which would probably expose financial risk to its users by writing “Based upon the firm’s engagement to date, the FCA considers that the firm is not capable of being effectively supervised.”

Binance was authorized to carry out all fruitful activities such as safeguarding, advising and dealing in crypto investments back in April 2018 but unfortunately had to be stopped in now. This incident truly comes as a heads up from all the prominent crypto exchange platforms around the world to maintain utmost transparency with their regulators since it was not willing to share a final draft of its business strategy and plan with the regulatory. 

Rushali Das

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA