FT: Binance says it aims to grow its business in the United Kingdom

A spokesman for the Bitcoin exchange Binance stated that, due to pressure on digital assets from authorities, the company finds it ‘very difficult’ to conduct business in the United States, and therefore hopes to establish relations with UK regulators.

At a Financial Times conference, the platform’s chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann noted that the past few years in the United States have been a tangled situation with regard to crypto-market oversight.

He mentioned recent actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), directed at the competing exchange Coinbase in connection with alleged securities-law violations.

Hillmann added that Binance will do ‘everything possible’ to begin official activity in the United Kingdom, but did not confirm a renewed license application.

Earlier, the company had already faced problems in the United Kingdom. In July 2021, FCA prohibited the British subsidiary Binance from carrying out any regulated activity without prior written approval from the regulator.

«I expect that at some point the United States will want to pivot and catch up with Europe, which has just adopted MiCA. This is a major step forward», — said the exchange’s representative.

In December 2021, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that plans to file with the FCA for registration to become a fully ‘regulated firm’. He also did not rule out creating a separate subsidiary modeled on Binance.US.

On 27 March, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against the Bitcoin exchange and Zhao, accusing them of unregistered derivatives trading, providing services to American citizens and sanctioned individuals, and failing to comply with anti-money-laundering rules.

In response, the head of Binance stated that the CFTC’s allegations contain ‘a partial account of the facts’, and that his company does not agree with the characterization of many points. Later he condemned ‘coercive crypto-regulation’ by regulators.