Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has become the latest regulator to issue a warning against Binance. The regulatory watchdog said Binance Group of companies are not licensed or authorized to offer any kind of services in Hongkong.
HONG KONG'S SFC SAYS NO ENTITY IN THE BINANCE GROUP IS LICENSED OR REGISTERED TO CONDUCT "REGULATED ACTIVITY" IN HONG KONG
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) July 16, 2021
Hong Kong became the eighth regulator to issue a warning against Binance for operating without the necessary license. Only a couple of days back, Italy’s top regulator CONSOB issued a similar warning against the world’s largest crypto exchange as its regulatory troubles continue to mount each day.
Until now Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Cayman Islands, Thailand, UK, and Singapore have all warned Binance of operating without a license. The regulatory crackdown on the world’s top crypto exchange has intensified over the past month and now threatens to curtail its rapid expansion. While regulatory and compliance warnings are nothing new for Binance as it operates in so many countries with very different sets of rules and regulations.
The government crackdown on crypto businesses especially crypto exchanges has intensified fearing money laundering practices. The recent call for strict regulatory measures around crypto exchanges has started to unfold as governments continue to weed out non-compliant services amid the growing demand for digital assets.
Binance’s Global Dominance Under Threat?
Binance has established itself as the top crypto exchange with a global audience that leads both spot and derivatives markets. While Binance has maintained it is fully compliant in every nation it conducts business, the series of warnings some of which are criminal contempt as well suggest, the exchange’s regulatory positions were quite different than what is portrayed.
While Binance’s regulatory troubles continue to rise which each passing day, its US competitors including Coinbase and FTX have made clear headways in terms of rapid adoption with regulatory compliance. Binance in its quest to lead the crypto market overlooked several regulatory issues with its operations, the lack of headquarters being the top one, which many regulators have especially pointed out. Earlier today it also suspended its Stock token services launched last year.
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