HTX has left the UK after settling with the Financial Conduct Authority, CoinDesk reports. The regulator announced the deal on Thursday and said the exchange is no longer active in the country. HTX has stopped UK deposits and sign-ups, and users are directed to its website to withdraw.
The FCA warned HTX in October 2023 over its marketing. It says the exchange kept promoting its services to UK consumers anyway and did not answer the regulator’s inquiries.
In October 2025 the FCA took the exchange to court over the continued promotions, and secured High Court rulings stopping HTX from knowingly promoting crypto services illegally to UK consumers.
The FCA’s statement is the only account in the report, and it does not say how many UK users HTX had or how much they held. A promotions case, in other words, took a warning, a court action and a settlement to end in a withdrawal.
The settlement bars HTX from targeting UK consumers through its website, apps and social media. It is not an admission of wrongdoing by HTX or Huobi Global S.A.
The case shows what the FCA can do today. Its crypto oversight is centred mainly on anti-money laundering and financial promotions, and Britain’s wider crypto regime does not expand until October 2027. Three years passed between the warning and the exit.
The settlement terms are confidential, so no payment figure has been disclosed, and the report carries no statement from HTX. If the exchange paid, the public cannot see what a three-year refusal cost, and the next unlicensed platform has no number to weigh.
