A UK fiscal watchdog hastily retracted an official warning about Kraken subsequently manifestly disruptive the substitution with online scammers — but a similar alert about BitMEX remains active.

On March 3, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a notice on its website cautioning citizens that the 2nd-largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Kraken, is not authorized to operate in the U.K.

The warning stated the visitor is "targeting people in the UK":

"We believe this firm has been providing financial services or products in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland without our authorization. Find out why to exist especially wary of dealing with this unauthorized firm and how to protect yourself from scammers."

Kraken demands FCA retract warning

However, the FCA quickly took the notice downward a few hours ago after a complaint from Kraken.

A Kraken representative told Cointelegraph information technology believes the notice referred to the activities of "investment scammers" claiming to operate under the Kraken brand. I tip off was that the FCA notice cites ii Gmail addresses every bit official contacts for Kraken. The representative said:

"The alarm was based on Gmail addresses and telephone numbers that belonged to investment scammers falsely using our make and we've reached out to the FCA to get this clarified [...] Kraken Futures (CryptoFacilities) is already registered with the FCA nether the reference number 757895."

FCA as well claims BitMEX is not authorized to operate in the U.K.

That same day the FCA published a similar generic notice aimed at pop cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX.

The alert asserts that BitMEX has been conducting regulated activities in the U.M. despite receiving no authorization to offer fiscal products in the jurisdiction. The discover highlights the email accounts "support@bitmex.com" and "ben@bitmex.com" — both of which announced to be official addresses.

The BitMEX notice has remained online for 48 hours every bit of this writing.

During October 2022, The FCA proposed a ban on cryptocurrency derivatives that target retail investors — like to the types of products offered by BitMEX.

Cointelegraph reached out to both BitMEX and the FCA for annotate but did not receive a response from either party every bit of publication fourth dimension.

FCA becomes U.K.'south crypto regulator

In January, the FCA assumed anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) responsibilities for businesses operating with crypto assets.

The regulator quickly introduced new fees for crypto businesses — reducing them from £iv,000 to £2,000 for businesses annual incomes of less than £250,000, while increasing the fee by 150% to £10,000 for businesses netting more than $250,000.

On March four, the incoming Bank of England governor and quondam head of the FCA Andrew Bailey warned about the dangers of cryptocurrency investments: "If you want to invest in Bitcoin, be prepared to lose your money."