The UK's FCA and Binance talks break down

[jackg]

I saw an article on this a few days back from a legitimate source and I'm wondering why no one else seems to have made a topic here on it.

It seems the UK financial conduct authority was trying to find a way to come to an agreement with binance to keep operating in the UK but put blame on binance for not being able to answer the questions it wanted them to.

I'm not entirely sure, personally, if this has any impact on bitcoin at all as I think there is a lot of competition to binance the FCA won't be able to find or that will comply with the FCA (such as coinbase and decentralised exchanges and the smaller leverage platforms).

[palle11]

I think the talks broke down

This is what I could find on it so far

(AF) In a demonstration of the difficulty in regulating cryptocurrencies, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it’s unable to oversee digital asset exchange Binance because of the risks involved in its products, the Financial Times reported.

The UK affiliate of the world’s largest crypto trading venue, which has no centralised headquarters and allows “supercharged” bets, had failed to respond to some of the FCA’s basic enquiries, making it difficult to supervise, the report added. Binance was censured by the FCA in June, the report stated.

There isn't much on it yet since the talks couldn't lead to any success. With that I think the stand taken in June on binance would still be operating except any further discussion is successful.

[HeRetiK]

A few days ago Binance announced that they are going to tighten their KYC requirements:
https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684902585/ecosystem/binance-expands-global-kyc-requirements-to-further-user-protection

I believe that's Binance trying to regain a better foothold with regulators. Keep in mind that Binance's trouble with the FCA also caused them to get disconnected from the European banking system so it's not only their UK business that is affected.

[Kyraishi]

I saw an article on this a few days back from a legitimate source and I'm wondering why no one else seems to have made a topic here on it.

It seems the UK financial conduct authority was trying to find a way to come to an agreement with binance to keep operating in the UK but put blame on binance for not being able to answer the questions it wanted them to.

I'm not entirely sure, personally, if this has any impact on bitcoin at all as I think there is a lot of competition to binance the FCA won't be able to find or that will comply with the FCA (such as coinbase and decentralised exchanges and the smaller leverage platforms).

I'm not even sure if Binance would be competitive in a regulated landscape.

A large proportion of their user base came from people who did not want to get verified or were not comfortable sharing their personal info.

Complying with the FCA would mean a permanent loss of these clients (with already tightening KYC standards), and potentially unravelling of past insider activity that has been brought up in recent days. It makes sense as a business decision to be honest.

[Darker45]

It is my impression that Binance is less responsible when it comes to dealing with local regulators face to face. They seem to act as if they're global and, therefore, does not care much about what's going on locally. They seem to think as if they're bigger than local regulatory demands.

As regards Binance's attempt to register in the UK, I think they've already withdrawn their application as early as May. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they're not anymore seeking FCA approval. They seem to be nonchalant about it, satisfied with the fact that despite not getting the nod from the FCA, they can still and are still offering crypto trading to UK citizens, although apparently there's a backlash from the banks and payment systems, which must be quite unexpected to them.

Following these developments, significant increases were observed in other platforms such as Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini, and others.

[avikz]

I saw an article on this a few days back from a legitimate source and I'm wondering why no one else seems to have made a topic here on it.

It seems the UK financial conduct authority was trying to find a way to come to an agreement with binance to keep operating in the UK but put blame on binance for not being able to answer the questions it wanted them to.

I'm not entirely sure, personally, if this has any impact on bitcoin at all as I think there is a lot of competition to binance the FCA won't be able to find or that will comply with the FCA (such as coinbase and decentralised exchanges and the smaller leverage platforms).

Can you please try to find the link of the news you are referring to?

I am surprised to know that FCA is trying to make an agreement Binance is not answering. It's usually the other way around. Private companies runs from pillers to post but regulatory authorities are hard to reach. Since when UK government authorities have become so friendly!!

As far as I have seen Cz, he is an opportunist. He wouldn't leave no stones unturned if he smells business. For him, UK should be a lucrative market, so not sure what the article you are referring to is genuine!

[just_Alice]

There were a lot of talks regarding Binance being banned by the FCA for not meeting anti-money-laundering requirements. I guess it's the same old news, the only new information is that recently FCA presented more reasons for not allowing for Binance to operate in the UK.

I don't think that this can have any impact on Bitcoin, only on Binance. With failing to meet certain requirements they're being suppressed by the growing number of competitors each day.

[Yaunfitda]

There were a lot of talks regarding Binance being banned by the FCA for not meeting anti-money-laundering requirements. I guess it's the same old news, the only new information is that recently FCA presented more reasons for not allowing for Binance to operate in the UK.

Are you saying that FCA doesn't want Binance to operate in the UK as they presented more reasons in the table that Binance can't comply? If that is the case then Binance is losing a lot of customers. And what are the requirements that Binance can't meet? They have a plan IPO similar to Coinbase so they should look good at least before moving with this idea.

I don't think that this can have any impact on Bitcoin, only on Binance. With failing to meet certain requirements they're being suppressed by the growing number of competitors each day.

Despite many competitors, Binance is still one of the top exchanges out there though. So it might have an impact but it's going to be short term, nonetheless. We all know that every negative news will put a dent on the price specially if crypto media will spin out of it and turn it into an FUD.

[Paul stuart]

Maybe it will not have an impact on Bitcoin but on Binance coin... and it is good thing because the value of this coin is clearly overvalued.
How the coin of a simple exchange (even if it is a good one) can weight 80 billions dollars!

[jaysabi]

There were a lot of talks regarding Binance being banned by the FCA for not meeting anti-money-laundering requirements. I guess it's the same old news, the only new information is that recently FCA presented more reasons for not allowing for Binance to operate in the UK.

Are you saying that FCA doesn't want Binance to operate in the UK as they presented more reasons in the table that Binance can't comply? If that is the case then Binance is losing a lot of customers. And what are the requirements that Binance can't meet? They have a plan IPO similar to Coinbase so they should look good at least before moving with this idea.

The FCA said it sent two requests for information about Binance's wider global business model and its stock tokens.  The information Binance sent back (when they even answered the requests) were viewed as, according to the FCA, "a refusal to supply information."  This is a huge red flag to regulators and should be to consumers as well.  If Binance does want to IPO, they better get on board with the regulatory regimes, because disclosures the disclosure requirements during the IPO process will be much more rigorous.

[Fortify]

I saw an article on this a few days back from a legitimate source and I'm wondering why no one else seems to have made a topic here on it.

It seems the UK financial conduct authority was trying to find a way to come to an agreement with binance to keep operating in the UK but put blame on binance for not being able to answer the questions it wanted them to.

I'm not entirely sure, personally, if this has any impact on bitcoin at all as I think there is a lot of competition to binance the FCA won't be able to find or that will comply with the FCA (such as coinbase and decentralised exchanges and the smaller leverage platforms).

It'll probably have a very small and limited impact on the overall price. There is nothing wrong with different regulators in different countries taking different actions to protect their own citizens, as you say. If companies want to operate with the approval of the UK authorities then that is up to them, however it's a fairly rich and open marketplace for companies that do want to comply. I wouldn't be so sure that Binance are the blameless ones here - I've used their platform once and the fees were absolutely extortionate so it would not surprise me to think that they would be up to other dirty tricks too. Being FCA approved is generally seen as a good thing, but obviously the regulator can make occasional mistakes.

[jaysabi]

I saw an article on this a few days back from a legitimate source and I'm wondering why no one else seems to have made a topic here on it.

It seems the UK financial conduct authority was trying to find a way to come to an agreement with binance to keep operating in the UK but put blame on binance for not being able to answer the questions it wanted them to.

I'm not entirely sure, personally, if this has any impact on bitcoin at all as I think there is a lot of competition to binance the FCA won't be able to find or that will comply with the FCA (such as coinbase and decentralised exchanges and the smaller leverage platforms).

It'll probably have a very small and limited impact on the overall price. There is nothing wrong with different regulators in different countries taking different actions to protect their own citizens, as you say. If companies want to operate with the approval of the UK authorities then that is up to them, however it's a fairly rich and open marketplace for companies that do want to comply. I wouldn't be so sure that Binance are the blameless ones here - I've used their platform once and the fees were absolutely extortionate so it would not surprise me to think that they would be up to other dirty tricks too. Being FCA approved is generally seen as a good thing, but obviously the regulator can make occasional mistakes.

I actually wouldn't expect it to have any impact on the price.  Binance could entirely disappear and there are more than enough exchange points people could go to in order to transact between bitcoin and fiat, so there would maybe be an initial (but extremely short-lived) disruption in demand.