Key takeaways:
- Poloniex has been added to the FCA’s warning list of unapproved businesses in the UK.
- In October, it declared that 140 cryptocurrency businesses, such as KuCoin and HTX, were on its watch list.
Poloniex, a cryptocurrency exchange, has been added to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) warning list of unapproved businesses in the UK.
One of the three businesses connected to or owned by businessman Justin Sun that has had four hacks in the past two months is the exchange situated in the Seychelles.
On December 6, the FCA’s website published the warning to Poloniex. It states that companies and people cannot market financial services in the UK without the required authority or approval, but it doesn’t give a reason for doing so. The public is also reminded by the FCA that when interacting with unlicensed organizations, they cannot rely on financial law protection.
The FCA disclosed in August that, since 2020, it has received 291 applications from cryptocurrency companies looking to register, of which only 38 have been granted.
It declared in October that 140 cryptocurrency businesses, such as KuCoin and HTX, were on its watch list. Since then, PayPal UK has been the sole organization that the authority has approved.
On November 10, Poloniex was the target of a $100 million breach. The platform has subsequently “mostly completed” its restoration efforts, according to the business, and by the end of November, it was getting ready to start accepting deposits and withdrawals again.
For a limited number of cryptocurrencies—including Tether, USDD, BitTorrent, WINkLink, ApeNFT, Sun Token, Just, Just Stablecoin, and USD Coin—the corporation restored deposit and withdrawal capabilities on December 5. The official announcement states that:
“the platform will gradually implement the resumption of deposit and withdrawal services for more cryptocurrencies.”
The owner of HTX, a cryptocurrency exchange formerly known as Huobi, is Justin Sun, the founder of Tron. In the past two months, there have been four hacks on Sun-linked platforms. In the incident that occurred in September, HTX lost $8 million, then in late November, a hot wallet hack cost them $30 million.
Simultaneously, hackers gained access to HTX’s HECO Chain Bridge, a mechanism for transferring digital assets between HTX and other networks like Ethereum, and transferred at least $86.6 million to shady addresses.
