OANDA, a cryptocurrency brokerage firm based in the United States, is preparing to launch its crypto trading services in the United Kingdom through its registered subsidiary, OANDA Crypto. The establishment of this crypto subsidiary took place last year following OANDA’s acquisition of a majority stake in Coinpass, a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-registered company.
The newly introduced crypto trading platform will provide services for more than 63 cryptocurrency pairs, including popular options like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Furthermore, OANDA has plans to include additional tokens and features in the future.
OANDA’s expansion into the U.K. comes over a year after the company initiated its crypto trading services in the United States in collaboration with Paxos, a well-known crypto trading platform. Recently, the firm relocated its European operations from Malta to Warsaw, Poland, and acquired the Polish broker Dom Maklerski TMS Brokers SA, which was subsequently rebranded as OANDA TMS.
OANDA has frequently opted for regions with stringent regulatory requirements, such as the U.S. and now the United Kingdom. Since October 2023, several leading crypto companies have withdrawn their services in the U.K. due to the FCA’s new regulatory guidelines on crypto advertising. Last year, companies like Bybit and Revolut temporarily halted their operations in the U.K., citing the new FCA promotion rules.
The new advertising rules restrict the promotion of crypto activities in the country solely to FCA-registered virtual asset service providers. Additionally, these rules mandate that crypto firms must significantly adapt their online platforms to provide better warnings to potential customers regarding investment risks.
The FCA discovered that numerous crypto companies were in violation of the crypto promotion rules, which came into effect on October 8, 2023. The regulator issued 450 consumer alerts against virtual asset companies that were unlawfully promoting crypto between October 8 and December 31, 2023, citing “significant levels of non-compliance.”
On the other hand, Lucian Lauerman, OANDA’s head of digital assets, described the U.K. market as a highly knowledgeable and active one. He noted that the market is becoming more in line with the markets where OANDA has traditionally operated and that the regulatory expectations have increased.
Cointelegraph reached out to OANDA for comments but has not yet received a response.
Magazine:
‘Crypto is inevitable,’ so we fully embraced it: Introducing Vance Spencer, a permabull