HTX settles FCA lawsuit and withdraws from the UK market

The exchange controlled by Justin Sun has given the High Court binding undertakings on its marketing, closing the regulator’s first case against a crypto firm over promotions aimed at British consumers.

HTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has settled a High Court lawsuit brought by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and is leaving the UK, the regulator said on Thursday.

Under the court undertakings, Huobi Global S.A., the Panama-registered company behind the HTX brand, has promised not to communicate financial promotions that breach UK law across its website, apps and social media channels. The FCA said HTX is no longer active in the UK: consumers can no longer make deposits, new UK users cannot sign up to the platform, and HTX will not target, solicit or actively seek to engage UK consumers.

The settlement terms are confidential. The FCA said the agreement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, and its notice states no penalty or payment amount. According to the crypto news outlet Unchained, a consent order dated October 27 stays the lawsuit, and HTX’s pledge not to knowingly market crypto to UK consumers in breach of the law runs until 2031.

The case was the FCA’s first against a crypto company over marketing to British customers, and it tested how far a national regulator can reach an offshore platform with no UK authorisation. Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said firms should understand that “being based overseas does not put them beyond the reach of UK law.”

HTX, formerly known as Huobi, said it had acted on its own initiative to comply with British promotion rules and that it would continue serving eligible users elsewhere. The company said it takes “local compliance requirements seriously”.

The dispute goes back to October 2023, when the UK’s crypto financial promotions framework took effect, requiring firms marketing cryptoassets to UK consumers to obtain authorisation or have their promotions approved by an authorised entity. The FCA says it warned HTX ahead of the change and received no response by 8 October 2023, and placed HTX on its Warning List. When the exchange did reply, in October 2024, it claimed to have been complying since the rules took effect, saying it had ceased targeting UK customers before that date.

The regulator was not persuaded. Filed in the High Court’s Chancery Division on October 21, 2025, the lawsuit targeted Huobi Global S.A. and several unidentified individuals believed to control the exchange’s operations and marketing. When the FCA made the case public in February, it asked social media companies to block HTX’s accounts for UK users and asked Apple and Google to pull its apps from their UK stores. HTX had stopped taking new British customers, but the FCA complained that existing UK users could still log in and see unlawful promotions, and that HTX had given no assurance the changes would be permanent. In August, the High Court paused proceedings to let the two sides negotiate a settlement.

The agreement leaves HTX’s more serious problem in Britain untouched. On 26 May 2026, the UK added 18 entities linked to the A7 crypto network to its sanctions list under its Russia sanctions regulations, among them Huobi Global. The government alleged the exchange formed part of the infrastructure Russia used to get around sanctions and helped move $1.5 billion back to the Kremlin, according to Bloomberg. HTX argued that the designation applied only to Huobi Global as a separate legal entity and that its exchange and user funds were unaffected. The Treasury’s sanctions office disagreed: in June it confirmed that the HTX exchange remains subject to UK financial sanctions because of its ownership by Huobi. The European Union added HTX to its own Russia sanctions in July. Sun, the Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur, bought a controlling stake in the exchange in 2022.

Lawyers expect the case to shape future enforcement. Oliver Pegden, a partner at Clifford Chance, told Reuters the outcome was likely to become a template for action against unauthorised firms targeting British customers, showing the FCA would pursue overseas platforms despite opaque ownership. Lawyers at Mayer Brown pointed to a parallel squeeze in the EU, where the transition period under the bloc’s MiCA crypto rules has now ended.

For British customers who still hold funds on HTX, the regulator pointed remaining UK users to HTX’s website for instructions on withdrawing their assets. HTX’s own October 16 notice says it does not serve UK residents and that existing UK accounts, restricted under its exit arrangements, cannot deposit, trade or transact.

The rules governing such firms are about to tighten further. Promotions have been regulated since 2023, but cryptoasset activities are only due to come within the more expansive regime under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 from 2027.