‘It’s a massive ask’: is Binance capable of being regulated?

theguardian.com:

In 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority was adamant: Binance is not capable of being regulated in the UK.

Executives at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange are not taking no for an answer. This month, Binance vowed to do “everything” it possibly could to change the City regulator’s mind, against a backdrop of deepening scepticism about digital assets.

The collapse last year of one of Binance’s biggest rivals, FTX, and the criminal proceedings that have followed, tarnished the sector. Those concerns were underlined by parliament’s cross-party Treasury committeethis month, which said UK authorities should regulate cryptocurrency trading as a form of gambling – adding that digital assets such as bitcoin have “no intrinsic value”. The global markets watchdog, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (Iosco), called for a different approach this week and said cryptocurrencies should be regulated in the same way as traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.

There is also evidence elsewhere that tech firms face a scrupulous regulatory environment in the UK. Reports suggest Revolut, Britain’s most valuable fintech firm, could have its application for a banking licence rejected by the Bank of England after the company’s auditor, BDO, raised concerns about the balance sheet.

Binance, which handles $65bn (£53bn) in daily trades and has no global headquarters, has been accepted by some oversight regimes but has been rejected by others. In the case of the US, the business is firmly in the sights of the authorities.

On 10 May, the company’s chief strategy officer, Patrick Hillman, bemoaned a crackdown in the US that he said had made it “very difficult” to do business in a key market. Recruited to the company in