On October 8, the UK's financial markets watchdog, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), had a busy day since it added a number of cryptocurrency exchanges to its warning list of unlicensed businesses that consumers "should avoid."

A total of 143 new businesses, including significant exchanges like Huobi-owned HTX and KuCoin, were added to the warning list. Apart from the sentence "You should avoid dealing with this firm," the warning list doesn't reveal anything.

Companies that are allowed to "carry out crypto asset activities" are required to be registered with the FCA or to have been given temporary operating permission.

In his private blog on LinkedIn in July, Jayson Probin—the FCA's head for cryptocurrency financial promotions—suggested that failing to comply could result in criminal charges:

“We will take robust action against persons illegally promoting to U.K. consumers. This may include, but it is not limited to, placing firms on our warning list requesting take downs of websites, social media accounts, apps and all other promotions that are in breach, and enforcement action.”

Since 2020, the FCA has received 291 applications for registration, but has only authorized 38 of them, or around 13% of them, according to information released in August.

42 companies, including Bitstamp, Revolut, and Gemini, are listed as registered crypto asset providers on the FCA's list as of the time of publication.

PayPal recently stopped processing cryptocurrency transactions for users in the United Kingdom while it figures out how to meet the FCA's standards.

In late September, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit with its headquarters in Dubai shut down all of its operations in the United Kingdom due to "regulatory changes."

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/huobi-ku-coin-140-crypto-exchanges-non-authorized-uk-regulator

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/warning-list-unauthorised-firms

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7081969508847869952/

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/search?predefined=CA