The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has included Poloniex, a cryptocurrency exchange, in its cautionary list of unauthorized firms. The exchange, situated in Seychelles, is associated with entrepreneur Justin Sun and is among three companies linked to Sun that have experienced four hacking incidents within the last two months.
The advisory warning about Poloniex's unauthorized status appeared on the FCA's website on December 6 without specifying the reason. However, it emphasized that offering financial services in the UK without proper authorization or approval is impermissible. The FCA also reiterated that individuals engaging with unauthorized entities do not benefit from financial law protection.
Earlier disclosures from the FCA revealed that despite 291 cryptocurrency firms applying for registration since 2020, only 38 received approval. In October, the FCA flagged 140 cryptocurrency firms, including HTX and KuCoin, on its warning list. Since then, the regulatory body has sanctioned only one entity: PayPal UK. Recently, Poloniex was a victim of a $100 million hack on November 10. The platform has made considerable progress in recovery efforts and is gearing up to resume withdrawals and deposits by the end of November.
On December 5, Poloniex reintroduced deposit and withdrawal services for certain cryptocurrencies like Tether through the Tron network, including USDD, BitTorrent, WINkLink, ApeNFT, Sun Token, Just, Just Stablecoin, and USD Coin. The official statement indicates that the platform plans to gradually restore deposit and withdrawal services for more cryptocurrencies.
Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, also owns HTX, formerly known as Huobi, another cryptocurrency exchange. Sun-affiliated platforms encountered four hacking incidents in the last two months. HTX faced losses of $8 million due to an attack in September and $30 million from a breach in the hot wallet in late November. Additionally, HTX's HECO Chain bridge, designed to transfer digital assets between HTX and other networks, was compromised, resulting in at least $86.6 million being sent to suspicious addresses.
