British and Japanese officials crack down on Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange

The UK is inching toward giving the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume the boot. On Saturday, the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) declared that Binance Markets Limited (BML) “is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK.” Among other things, the FCA has taken issue with Binance offering cryptoasset derivatives.

• Binance told CNBC that the order wouldn’t affect UK traders’ ability to access the Binance website.

This isn’t the only cold shoulder for the global crypto exchange

Last week, Japanese authorities said that Binance was operating in the country without permission. And in the US, Binance is facing money-laundering and tax evasion probes, Bloomberg recently reported.

Bottom line: Compared to some of its more compliance-oriented competitors, Binance has been fond of a hopscotch-like approach to regulation. As governments back more efforts to regulate crypto, that strategy may be coming back to haunt the exchange.

For example, we’d like to tell you where Binance is headquartered, but we’re not really sure. CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has said the company doesn’t have a physical HQ.—RD