The Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom has issued a warning that cryptocurrency exchange Binance is not permitted to operate in the United Kingdom without its express authorisation.
"Binance Markets Limited is not now permitted to perform any regulated operations without the previous written approval of the FCA," the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates 60,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK, said on Saturday.
Binance Markets Limited is a subsidiary of the Binance Group, which operates the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. A warning to potential crypto investors was also issued by the watchdog.
"Be aware of internet and social media advertisements promising huge returns on investments in cryptoassets or cryptoasset-related products," it said. "While we do not regulate cryptoassets such as Bitcoin or Ether, we do regulate some cryptoasset derivatives (such as futures contracts, contracts for difference, and options), as well as cryptoassets we would consider'securities,'" according to the FCA statement. "A company must have our permission to market or sell these products in the United Kingdom."
The prohibition in the United Kingdom comes only one day after Japan's financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, issued a warning that Binance was not registered to conduct business in the country.
BaFin, Germany's financial watchdog, warned the company earlier this year that it may have broken securities trading rules by allowing non-US customers to trade tokenized versions of some US stocks such as Tesla, Coinbase, and MicroStrategy.
Users can often trade crypto derivatives, such as futures and options, on Binance, which does not have a single location for its headquarters. However, as individual investors become more comfortable with 24-hour stock trading over the last year, the exchange began to offer investors the option of exchanging fractions of shares through a German broker as an intermediary.
