It is reported that the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority fired an open shot at cryptocurrency exchange FTX and issued the public warning to users that it is not licensed to operate within the U.K.
“We believe this firm may be providing financial services or products in the U.K. without our authorization,” the FCA declared in a short message on the FCA’s website. The FCA added it: “You will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so you are unlikely to get your money back if things go wrong.”
The announcement is a reiteration of the FCA’s decision against FTX’s largest rival, Binance, last year as well as the latest variation in the long-running game of the game of cat and mouse played between crypto exchanges and regulators that have tried for years to gain access to markets in developed offshore jurisdictions that have less surveillance.
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Binance was also criticised in the last year in the FCA and ultimately forced to say it would apply again for supervision in the U.K.
FTX is currently operating throughout its current operations in the European Economic Area through K-DNA Financial Services Ltd that has an operating license issued by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. It also provides trading of tokenized stocks in the EEA through its subsidiaries, which have licenses from Switzerland as well as Germany. However the U.K.’s decision to leave both the European Union and the EEA by the end of 2020 means that neither of these give it the ability to conduct trade within Britain.
