Natwest is the next shoe to drop in the ongoing purge of transfers to Binance, according to a report by Yahoo. Recently, Santander and Barclays issued statements that they would no longer facilitate transfers from UK customers to the Binance platform.
This all stems from a notice by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. The FCA stated that no other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of UK authorization, registration, or license to conduct a regulated activity in the UK. The FCA explained that Binance.com was offering a range of products and services to UK individuals.
Binance has garnered growing regulatory scrutiny around the world. Earlier this month, Binance said it would no longer offer security tokens on its marketplace. Around the same time, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued a statement that Binance may be offering stock tokens to investors in Hong Kong without appropriate regulatory approval.
The Natwest report should come as no surprise as it was reported in April that Natwest was saying no to crypto.
A recent speech by the FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi shared they have seen an explosion among younger people speculating on cryptocurrencies or other high-risk investments. He cautioned about the risks affiliated with trading in crypto re-affirming that investors should be prepared to lose all of their money.
Binance remains the most active crypto exchange by volume in the world by a wide margin. The increasing regulatory attention appears to have had little impact on crypto trading volume. At least for now.