Binance to Launch FCA Regulated Crypto Exchange in the UK This Summer

Leading spot cryptocurrency exchange Binance will launch a crypto trading platform in the UK this summer, announced the exchange on Wednesday. The exchange will be regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

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Currently, up to 65 digital currencies are being considered to be available on the trading venue at the launch. The buying and selling of digital currencies will be available through direct bank transfers through the UK Faster Payments service and Single Euro Payments Area network.

U.K.’s pivotal role as a global fintech innovation leader

Binance UK Director Teana Baker-Taylor shared that interest and participation in the UK digital asset market are growing, not only in-depth but also in breadth. She said,

“As crypto services mature and evolve, we’re able to create new options to engage and capture interest from a wider audience with varying risk appetites, such as products that earn a yield for participation, like staking and passive savings.”

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) also shared that the UK is “a significant financial epicenter,” with London being the leading market for foreign exchange. He said,

“As part of our local market growth efforts around the world to bring more tangible financial access through the power of digital assets and its technology, the U.K. is at the forefront of spurring larger interest in the region and throughout Europe.”

Growing institutional client base

The platform will be designed to cater to both institutional and retail investors to buy and sell crypto using pounds and euros.

Institutional interest in the crypto space has been increasing as a recent Fidelity survey of 800 institutional investors found that a third of big institutions already own crypto assets while nearly 80% finding some appeal in them.

Binance is also seeing a growing presence of institutional clients on its trading platform, with a growth of 47.4% in the first quarter of 2020 from the last quarter of 2019.

Institutional client volumes also jumped by 113% in the first quarter from the previous quarter on spot transactions and 217% on Binance futures.

Broadening the horizons

Over the years, Binance has been establishing joint ventures with global partners in Singapore, Korea, Uganda, Jersey, and the US for fiat-to-cryptocurrency trading platforms.

The crypto exchange also continues to add new services, just last week, it added quarterly bitcoin futures to its suite of derivatives products.

These new contracts settle in Bitcoin and expire on the last Friday of each three-months period. Binance competitors Kraken and Huobi Global already offer futures of multiple durations.

Meanwhile, crypto assets are back in the green. Given that cryptos are much smaller market-cap assets compared to traditional assets, Zhao said the “fluctuations will be higher” but he remains optimistic about longer-term trends.

According to him, China’s digital yuan will further help users become educated about bitcoin and crypto. “That aspect will be very positive,” he said.