HTX Exits UK Market After FCA Secures High Court Settlement Over Unlawful Crypto Promotions
HTX Exits UK Market After FCA Secures High Court Settlement Over Unlawful Crypto Promotions #
HTX, the global crypto exchange formerly known as Huobi, has exited the United Kingdom after settling a lawsuit with the Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator announced Thursday. The FCA secured High Court undertakings barring HTX from knowingly promoting cryptoasset services to UK consumers. It was the FCA’s first enforcement case against a crypto firm under UK financial promotion rules.
Those rules came into force in October 2023 and require any firm promoting cryptoassets to UK consumers to be either FCA-authorised or to have its promotions approved by an authorised firm. HTX had appeared on the FCA’s Warning List from the outset of the new regime in October 2023, yet continued promoting its services through its website and across social media platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok, and YouTube.
The FCA filed legal proceedings in October 2025 against Panama-incorporated Huobi Global S.A. and several groups of “persons unknown,” a designation the regulator used to cover unidentified individuals it believed controlled the exchange’s accounts across multiple digital channels. The FCA said HTX had repeatedly declined to engage before the case was launched. In February 2026, the High Court granted permission to serve those proceedings outside the jurisdiction and by alternative means, given the platform’s opaque corporate structure.
After proceedings began, HTX moved to restrict UK access: new registrations were blocked and UK deposits stopped. Under the settlement announced Thursday, those restrictions are now formalised as binding court undertakings. The exchange has committed not to target, solicit or actively seek UK consumers via its website, mobile applications or any social media channel. Existing UK users have been given 48 hours to withdraw any remaining assets, according to information published on HTX’s own website. The financial terms of the deal are confidential, and the undertakings run until October 2031.
HTX dropped the Huobi name in 2023, the same year a cyberattack triggered roughly $258 million in outflows. Justin Sun, the Tron blockchain founder who took a controlling stake in 2022, is described by the exchange as an adviser rather than an owner.
Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, noted that most of the regulator’s work against illegal promotions stays out of court. The FCA flagged nearly 20,000 unlawful financial promotions in 2024 alone. Smart said the FCA would pursue litigation against offshore platforms that ignore UK rules and refuse to engage with the regulator.
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