Bitcoin Forum

Binance has always been my go to platform to buy Bitcoin in the UK with lower fees and a good level of trust. However today they have stopped allowing GBP deposits and I'm I don't know anywhere else that can offer the same level of service as Binance. Can anyone recommend an alternative?

Have you checked Coinbase or CoinCorner?

I read that some UK banks are blocking crypto transactions (not just Binance's) so make sure that your bank is bitcoin-friendly first.

Since you used Binance, I suppose you don't have problems doing KYC, in which case Coinbase and Gemini are probably your best bets in terms of consumer protection (the former probably gives you the best protection).

Personally, have also used Bitpanda for GBP deposits in the past, can't say it's the same now.

You can also go the P2P route, BISQ (https://bisq.markets/market/btc_gbp) and HodlHodl (https://hodlhodl.com/offers/buy?pagination%5Boffset%5D=0&filters%5Bcurrency_code%5D=GBP) are the only ones I've tried in the past, I still miss LBC...

https://kycnot.me/

Take your pick. I'd recommend Bisq or AgoraDesk. A quick look shows that they both offer GBP pairs.

binnace still support GBP trading. They only don't support GBP deposits. So if you already did KYC on binance and binance is the best crypto exchange, i would rather try to stay with it. I recommend trying to convert GBP to USD using any online cantor or inside the banking account, if the bank has such an option, and sending $$ to binance. You can also try to use bitcoin ATM - https://coinatmradar.com/ i see there are some available in UK.

Thanks all! I have tried CoinBase but the fees tend to be a bit higher on there, trying to find the cheapest way to get my Bitcoin. Will look at CoinCorner too

They don't actually. At least not if you're in the UK. i.e. the btc/gbp pair is still listed but if you try to execute a trade you'll get this error:
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/05/29/wU7ZW.png

I think the only options are trading GBP for BUSD/USDT (I haven't tried doing that though) and you still should be able to withdraw GBP. But again, this could be different for non-UK residents.

What's more, UK residents are also no longer able to use any "Earn" offers (earn interest on crypto holdings).

You could also try to look into these places:

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinUK/wiki/buy/
2. https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/

They're just research materials. Ultimately, you still have to verify if an exchange fit your use case the best plus its reputation.

Just looking to find out more and stumbled onto this news: https://decrypt.co/123364/binance-suspend-british-pound-deposits-withdrawals

It looks like binance is slowly limiting all activity that uses GBP, including trading and staking itself. Unless Binance finds an alternative partner to Skrill Limited (even if these limitations have nothing to do with government intervention).

So its only for UK residents, because BTC/GBP trading pair is very active (few trades per second). Someone is doing those trades.


for the ingenious, I would like to warn against using VPN to bypass this. CZ has boasted many times that it has the best system in the industry to verify the origin of users. They will find out and block the account completely.

As I know https://cex.io is UK based exchange. At least that's what it said to me on the bank statement when I made a withdrawal from there.
There were announcements that he would have his card, I don't know what the status of that is.

I saw they have "Lowered fees are for GBP deposits made by UK residents."
The only thing that I think is a disadvantage here is a slightly lower trading volume for the BTC/GBP pair, maybe not for bigger players.

Damn, I completely forgot about them and am a bit surprised they're still around.
They use to be big when they were selling mining contracts and their pool (ghash.io) at one point even crossed 50% of the global hashing power. But they seemed to be slowly dying after mining contracts become unprofitable.

It's hard to figure out what would "based in UK" even mean nowadays, they seem to be run by multiple entities and the only regulated one would be a Gibraltar-registered company.

Hi there. Instead of accumulating power further, GHash.IO stopped the pool from accepting more participants. The mining power shrunk, and decentralization of the bitcoin network was reinstated.

Initiated by our team, the first roundtable of bitcoin miners concluded that, for open finance to live up to its promise, industry participants must uphold decentralization. For that to happen, a broad adoption of cryptocurrencies must take place.

Since then, we’ve dedicated years of work to making access to crypto and blockchain technologies simple. When CEX.IO was the first to let people buy and sell Bitcoin with a credit card, we were just getting started.

We are indeed the UK-based crypto exchange but we have offices all over the world.

Concerning our policies, here is a page with all the licenses and regulations https://cex.io/legal-security.

If you have any additional questions - we would be happy to answer them.