UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has obtained a High Court order that bars cryptocurrency exchange HTX—previously known as Huobi—from knowingly promoting cryptoasset services in violation of UK rules to customers based in the country.
The development, announced by the regulator in late October 2026, marks a significant enforcement step against an overseas crypto platform and effectively ends HTX’s active presence in the UK market.
The FCA launched legal proceedings against HTX in October 2025, alleging repeated breaches of the United Kingdom’s financial promotion regulations.
Under those rules, firms must ensure that marketing of cryptoassets to UK consumers complies with strict standards designed to protect investors from misleading or unauthorised promotions.
Officials stated that HTX had repeatedly ignored attempts by the regulator to engage and resolve the issues. After the case was filed in the Business and Property Division of the High Court on 21 October 2025, the exchange began taking steps to withdraw from the UK.
The proceedings were publicly disclosed by the FCA in February 2026, at which point the regulator described the action as its first High Court enforcement case against a crypto firm for illegally marketing products to British consumers.
A confidential settlement has now been reached between the FCA and Huobi Global S.A., a Panama-incorporated company named as the first defendant in the proceedings.
As part of the resolution, a Tomlin order was issued by Deputy Master Holden on 27 October 2026.
Under the order, Huobi Global has provided undertakings to the court that it will not knowingly—whether directly or indirectly, and including through officers, agents or others—communicate or cause to be communicated any financial promotion that contravenes section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
These commitments apply to the HTX website and any similar sites operated by the exchange, its software applications, and social media platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, Medium and LinkedIn.
The undertakings remain in force until 21 October 2031.
The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability or wrongdoing by Huobi Global or any other party, and the detailed commercial terms remain confidential.
Further proceedings in the case have been stayed, except for the purpose of enforcing the agreed terms.
As a practical consequence, HTX is no longer active in the United Kingdom. Existing UK customers can no longer make deposits on the platform, and new users based in the country are unable to register accounts.
The exchange has also committed not to target, solicit or actively seek to engage British consumers.
UK users who still hold residual assets on HTX are advised to consult information published on the exchange’s website regarding the current availability of services and the arrangements for withdrawing remaining funds.
Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, emphasised the broader message of the outcome.
He stated that crypto firms should understand that operating from overseas does not place them beyond the reach of UK law, that the action has resulted in HTX leaving the UK and ceasing to target UK consumers, and that other firms must follow the rules or face the consequences.
The case highlights ongoing regulatory scrutiny of crypto marketing in the UK, where cryptoassets remain largely unregulated except for anti-money laundering requirements and financial promotion rules (with fuller regulation expected later).
Consumers are reminded that crypto investments carry high risk and are encouraged to verify a firm’s permissions using the FCA’s Firm Checker tool. The High Court order and associated undertakings provide a formal, time-limited restraint on unlawful promotional activity by HTX while the confidential settlement brings the litigation to a close without a finding of liability.
