Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bybit announced this morning that it would stop serving UK customers on March 31st. Bybit named new regulations for crypto-based derivatives as the reason for the move. The exchange said in a press release: “In order to comply with the ban on crypto derivatives by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Bybit will stop providing services to customers in the UK.” It requires customers to close all positions and withdraw all their funding by the end of this month.
Derivatives are niche financial instruments that, in this case, can track the price of the underlying asset or the cryptocurrency. Customers do not have cryptocurrency on-site when purchasing these products, and the use of high leverage makes them a popular product with cryptocurrency traders.
Derivative trading banned in the UK
However, the UK’s FCA suddenly took action last year to ban the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives and Exchange Traded Notes (ETN). The company said that since such products’ underlying assets are volatile and demand for such crypto derivatives is insufficient, they are “not suitable for retail customers.”
The ban went into effect in January 2021, but some bans (like Bybit) have performed basic operations on existing customers. However, this situation will not continue for the time being and will prevent UK users from creating new accounts from creating accounts. Bybit said, “Registrations with UK cell phone numbers and/or IP addresses will be restricted immediately.”
Bybit is one of the largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, according to the market tracking agency CoinGecko. The exchange’s trading volume exceeded $11 billion in the past ten days of trading. SimilarWeb web analytics service recommends that the platform is popular with UK retailers. More than 5% of all website visitors come from this country.
Simultaneously, the exchange added that it would continue its dialogue with local authorities to examine options for new and existing customers.
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