The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom has included cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex on its warning list of non-authorized companies. Poloniex is based in Seychelles and owned by entrepreneur Justin Sun, whose three affiliated companies experienced four hacks in the past two months alone.
The FCA’s warning states: “This firm may be promoting financial services or products without our permission. You should avoid dealing with this firm.” While it does not specify the reason, the notice emphasizes that firms and individuals cannot promote financial services in the UK without the necessary authorization or approval. The FCA also reminds the public that dealing with unauthorized entities does not afford them financial law protection.
In August, the FCA disclosed that it had received 291 applications from crypto companies for registration since 2020, with only 38 approvals granted. In October, the regulator included 140 crypto companies, including HTX (formerly Huobi), KuCoin and Bitfinex, on its warning list. So far, the FCA has only authorized PayPal as a UK crypto service provider, allowing it to offer crypto-related services to British users.
Poloniex fell victim to a $100 million hack on November 10. Following the hacking incident, the exchange claims to have made significant progress in restoring its services, and has resumed withdrawals and deposits for certain assets via the Tron network, such as USDT, USDD, BTT, WIN, NFT, SUN, JST, USDJ and USDC. The exchange also announced an “extraordinary airdrop to reward all our users” in partnership with HTX DAO.
It is worth noting that Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, also owns HTX, formerly known as Huobi. HTX lost $8 million in a September attack and an additional $30 million due to a hot wallet breach in late November. Furthermore, hackers compromised HTX’s HECO Chain bridge, transferring at least $86.6 million to suspicious addresses.
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