Amid regulatory scrutiny the crypto exchange has recently faced, Binance has discontinued its registration with the UK’s FCA in response to global regulators’ persistent resistance.
The UK-based subsidiary of Binance, Binance Markets Limited (BML), has officially canceled its registration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The FCA stated on its website that no Binance entity could provide services in the United Kingdom after deregistration.
According to the FCA, the authority fulfilled Binance’s request to cancel BML’s permissions on May 30, 2023.
“Following the completion of the cancellation of permissions, the firm is no longer authorized by the FCA,” the regulator noted in a June 7 update.
A regional manager at Binance said that the cancellation of BML’s registration had no operational impact on the company because BML had never operated in the country.
Binance’s sub-regional manager for growth in the United Kingdom and Europe, Ilir Laro, argued that BML has never engaged in “any type of regulated business” in the United Kingdom. He added:
“BML was successfully acquired back in 2020 by Binance Group, intended to launch a regulated business in the UK. This attempt was not successful, however, and has since then remained dormant since its acquisition.”
Sunday on Twitter, Laro noted that Binance maintains five regulated European entities, including France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Sweden. “As MiCA goes into effect in 2024/25, we are shifting our attention to preparation, which includes some consolidation to obtain a European passport,” he explained.
The executive also discussed the rationale for Binance’s regulatory retreats in Cyprus, the Netherlands, and Nigeria.
In the past, Binance encountered regulatory issues in the United Kingdom. The FCA ordered Binance to cease all regulatory activities in the United Kingdom in 2021.
The news comes immediately after Binance’s chief strategy officer, Patrick Hillmann, expressed the company’s commitment to being regulated in the U.K.
As previously reported, U.S. regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have filed two civil lawsuits against Binance.
