(Reuters) – Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered cryptocurrency exchange Binance to stop undertaking any regulated activity in the country, saying the firm lacked authorization.
The exchange would not be allowed to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA, the watchdog said in a statement https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/consumer-warning-binance-markets-limited-and-binance-group dated Saturday.
“No other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of UK authorisation, registration or licence to conduct regulated activity in the UK,” the FCA statement said.
Britain’s move comes at a time when Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is under scrutiny by regulators in other countries, including the United States and Germany.
Officials from the U.S. Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service who probe money laundering and tax offenses have sought information from individuals with insight into the company’s business, Bloomberg reported last month.
In April, Germany’s financial regulator BaFin warned the exchange risked being fined for offering digital tokens without an investor prospectus.
(Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra)
