- The FCA has secured High Court undertakings from Huobi Global S.A., the company behind the HTX exchange, not to knowingly promote its services unlawfully to UK consumers.
- HTX is no longer active in the UK. Deposits are closed and new UK users cannot sign up. The FCA says the firm took those steps itself after proceedings began.
- The settlement terms are confidential and carry no admission of liability or wrongdoing by Huobi Global.
UK customers of HTX, the exchange formerly known as Huobi, can no longer pay money onto the platform, and nobody new in the UK can open an account. That is the practical outcome of a settlement between the Financial Conduct Authority and the company behind the exchange, confirmed by the regulator this week.
If you have a balance on HTX, getting it out is now your problem to manage. The FCA’s statement points UK users at HTX’s own website for the withdrawal arrangements and stops there: it does not confirm that those arrangements are working, or that anybody’s money has actually been returned. An exchange leaving a market in an orderly way is the good version of this story. The bad version is a balance you find you cannot reach, and the only way to know which one you are in is to go and check.
What the regulator actually got
The FCA started proceedings against Huobi Global S.A. in the Business and Property Division of the High Court on 21 October 2025, and made the action public on 10 February 2026. The issue was section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which makes it an offence to communicate a financial promotion in the UK unless you are authorised or an authorised firm has approved it. Since October 2023 that rule has applied to cryptoasset promotions as well.
What came out of the case is a Tomlin order, dated 27 October 2026 and made by Deputy Master Holden. A Tomlin order is the form courts use when both sides agree terms: the case is stayed rather than decided, and the agreed terms sit in a schedule that the court can enforce if either side breaks them. Here, Huobi Global undertakes not to knowingly, directly or indirectly, communicate a financial promotion in breach of section 21, across its website, its apps and its social media.
That word “knowingly” is the difference between the headline and the document. An undertaking not to knowingly breach the rules is a narrower commitment than a promise that no unlawful promotion will ever reach a UK consumer again. Affiliate marketers, resellers and ad networks sit outside a company’s direct control, and if a promotion does land in front of a UK user, the question becomes what the firm knew about it. That is a harder thing to prove than the existence of the ad.
A settlement is not a finding
The FCA’s note to editors is clear that the terms are confidential and that the settlement does not constitute an admission of liability or wrongdoing by Huobi Global or anyone else. No court has ruled that HTX broke the promotions rules. The regulator’s account of the case, including its statement that HTX “failed repeatedly to engage” with it before proceedings began, is the FCA’s own characterisation of events.
Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said in the press release: “Crypto firms should be under no illusion: being based overseas does not put them beyond the reach of UK law. Our action means HTX is leaving the UK and can no longer target UK consumers. The message to other firms is clear: follow the rules or face the consequences.”
That is deterrence language, written for the firms watching rather than for the court. It is also the part of this the FCA most wants carried, because the regulator has spent two years issuing warnings and takedown requests against offshore platforms with mixed results. Taking one to the High Court and getting an enforceable undertaking out of it is a different kind of result, whatever the schedule says about liability.
If you are a UK user
Start with HTX’s own page on UK service availability, which is where the FCA sends people and the only place the arrangements for residual assets are set out. Make a note of your balances before you begin, request the withdrawal, and keep the confirmations. If anything stalls, our guide to stuck withdrawals covers what to do and who to escalate to. Disposals and transfers can also matter for HMRC, which is covered in our crypto tax guide.
One thing worth being realistic about: an exchange that has stopped serving your country has very little commercial reason to prioritise your support ticket. Sooner is better than later.
What to watch
Whether UK users report withdrawals completing cleanly over the next few weeks. That is the only measure of this that affects anyone’s money, and it is the one the press release does not address.
After that, whether the FCA repeats the approach. Court proceedings are slow and expensive, and the regulator cannot run one against every offshore platform advertising to British users. If a second case follows quickly, the deterrent line starts to look like a policy. If it does not, HTX was an example rather than a template. Crypto in the UK stays largely outside regulation beyond the money laundering and promotions rules until October 2027, when the broader regime arrives, and that is the deadline most of this is really pointing at. More on the rules as they land on our policy page.