FCA v HTX: Financial promotions enforcement crosses borders

On 10 February 2026, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it has commenced a legal action against Panama-based, global crypto exchange HTX for illegally promoting cryptoasset services to UK consumers.

The legal action follows the FCA’s recently-published proposals which will create a regulatory regime for cryptoassets overseen by the FCA. Firms wishing to provide certain cryptoasset services in the UK, or to its consumers, must be authorised and supervised by the FCA. 

This article sets out the details of the FCA’s legal action, the implications and key takeaways for crypto exchanges and the professionals advising them. We also explain what this means for the FCA’s broader approach in respect of cryptoassets. The FCA’s recent actions demonstrate its determination to protect UK consumers where in-scope organisations risk causing harm to them.

Legal Action

The FCA’s financial promotions rules came into force in October 2023. The rules seek to tackle unfair and misleading marketing by firms. All firms providing crypto products to UK consumers must comply with them. It is a criminal offence to advertise cryptoassets on social media or websites accessible to UK consumers where the marketing does not comply with these rules. 

Before the 10 February 2026 announcement, HTX (which was founded in 2013 in China) was warned about its non-compliant promotion of crypto services to UK consumers. HTX was placed on the FCA’s Warning List in October 2023 – the same day the FCA’s financial promotions regime came into place. 

When a company is placed on the Warning List, it means that the company is operating without authorisation. As a result, consumers are warned to act with caution before they interact with the company. This is likely to result in lost business for a firm, so is not a decision which is taken lightly.

The FCA’s concerns have now escalated. The FCA argues that, despite the warnings, HTX has continued to breach financial promotions rules, through publications on its website and on social media platforms (including TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube). According to the FCA, HTX applications continue to be available on the Google Play and Apple stores in the UK. The FCA states that this is a clear indication that HTX has failed to implement adequate restrictions to avoid infringing the financial promotions rules. 

This case demonstrates that, before considering legal action, the FCA will seek to engage with the relevant firm. This does not appear to have worked. The FCA says that “HTX operates an opaque organisational structure, hiding the identities of its owners and the operators of its website. Repeated attempts by the FCA to engage with HTX have been ignored.” 

The FCA further underlines this view in its Particulars of Claim (the Particulars). The Particulars sets out attempts by the FCA to contact HTX between 4 July 2023 until 4 October 2024. No response was apparently received until 22 October 2024. This was considered to be an insufficient level of cooperation.