Offshore crypto exchange HTX leaves the UK, settling UK FCA court action on its financial promotions

The rules

Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) prohibits certain financial promotions (including relating to cryptoassets) unless by or approved by an authorised person. The main exemption for overseas firms (Article 12 of the Financial Promotion Order) covers communications directed only at persons outside the UK. Relevant factors include whether the communication says it is not for UK persons, whether it is accessible from material directed at the UK, and whether proper systems prevent UK recipients from acting on it. The FCA’s crypto promotion rules, announced on June 8, 2023, require prominent risk warnings and a cooling-off period for first-time investors, and ban “refer a friend” bonuses. To address breaches by unauthorised persons, the FCA’s most relevant power is under section 380 FSMA to ask the court for an injunction.

The action and the settlement

HTX is a crypto exchange. According to the FCA’s particulars of claim of October 21, 2025, the FCA placed HTX on its warning list when the crypto promotions regime started and wrote to it repeatedly in 2023 and 2024, receiving little beyond automated replies and then, in October 2024, a statement that it had stopped targeting UK customers.

The FCA alleged that HTX’s website accepted GBP and UK photo identification and saw substantial traffic from the UK, and that an FCA employee using a UK IP address was able to open an account and trade. The FCA also alleged that a range of HTX website and social media content was accessible to users within the UK including relating to trading bonuses, prize pools, yield products and crypto loans.

After surmounting procedural issues relating to identifying respondents and service out of the jurisdiction, the FCA announced the proceedings in February 2026 and said that it asked social media firms and app stores to block HTX in the UK. There followed negotiation between FCA and HTX’s operator, Huobi Global S.A., culminating in settlement announced on October 29, 2026.

Under a Tomlin order dated October 27, 2026 (a consent order staying a claim on agreed terms) the claim is stayed save for enforcement, with no order as to costs. HTX has undertaken to the court that it will not knowingly, directly or indirectly, communicate financial promotions in breach of section 21 of FSMA, including through its website, apps and social media. The undertaking is for five years (no reason for this duration is given). The settlement terms are confidential, but the FCA has announced that HTX has left the UK. There was no admission of liability or wrongdoing. Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said that “being based overseas does not put [crypto firms] beyond the reach of UK law”.

Insights

This is the latest in a series of cryptoassets actions from the FCA. It appears to be clearing the decks in advance of cryptoassets being brought within its regulatory perimeter in October 2027, sending a clear practical message: engage with the new regime and comply with our existing rules in the meantime (e.g., re financial promotions and AML) or wind down your UK-facing business.

The action demonstrates that the FCA has a credible capability to act against opaque offshore operators in cases sufficiently serious to warrant committing the resource necessary to do so. Here the FCA combined a section 380 claim for injunctive relief against persons unknown, successfully effecting alternative service and making takedown requests to platforms. 

The FCA framed its case on the accessibility of the financial promotions, not whether they targeted UK consumers. The FCA’s position was that an overseas firm that has “stopped targeting” the UK remains within section 21 if its promotions can still reach, and be acted on by, UK consumers, and that Article 12 protection depends on working systems rather than statements of intent. This is a settled case, not binding precedent, but the FCA’s pleadings contain a practical checklist of some key elements that the FCA will look at: English-language content, GBP functionality, acceptance of UK identity documents, UK traffic data, social media and affiliate reach, and whether in practice someone with a UK IP address can open an account and make a trade. 

UK financial services firms providing services to offshore exchanges are within the FCA’s stated concerns. These may include banks, payment services firms and others providing fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat services, i.e., on-ramps and off-ramps. It would be prudent to conduct thorough due diligence on crypto counterparties’ UK marketing activities and UK accessibility and ensure the inclusion of contractual rights to suspend services.