Binance is planning to cement its position in the United Kingdom as the crypto exchange is planning to file for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval in the country, CEO Changpeng told Sunday Telegraph in a recent interview.
Furthermore, the exchange is hiring several former FCA staff and ‘a couple of hundred compliance people’ to sweeten its relationship with the financial markets regulator.
“We’re making a number of very substantial changes in organizational structures, product offerings, our internal processes and the way we work with regulators,” Zhao said. “We want to continue to establish a presence in the UK and serve UK users in a fully licensed and fully compliant manner.”
The global exchange is anticipating to follow its operations in the United States, where it is operating under a locally regulated subsidiary, Binance US.
Changing Its Unregulated Operations
Binance is currently offering the service to the residents in the United Kingdom with its global platform. However, the FCA flagged the exchange group stating that none of its entities ‘holds any form of UK authorization, registration or license to conduct a regulated activity in the UK’. Additionally, it clarified that the crypto exchange cannot be properly supervised.
Meanwhile, the FCA requires all crypto companies operating on the island to register with it. Despite being the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance operates in a decentralized way, keeping its operations very opaque. Moreover, its dominance in the space attracted regulatory attention as dozens of global watchdogs flagged or took enforcement actions against the exchange.
Now, Binance is following a different approach and is in the process of establishing its global headquarters and making amends with various regulators. The exchange is even expecting massive funding and is considering going public, similar to its US-based rival Coinbase.
