- HTX, formerly Huobi, has given High Court undertakings that it will not knowingly promote cryptoasset services to UK consumers in breach of UK rules.
- The exchange closed UK deposits and new sign-ups after the FCA began proceedings, and is no longer active here.
- The settlement is confidential and, by the FCA’s own account, involves no admission of liability or wrongdoing.
The Financial Conduct Authority has settled its case against HTX, the exchange formerly known as Huobi, and says the outcome stops the firm promoting itself to UK consumers. Deposits and new UK sign-ups are closed. What the settlement does not contain is any finding that HTX broke the rules.
If you hold money on HTX, this settlement doesn’t return it, guarantee it or insure it. Cryptoasset holdings sit outside the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and outside the Financial Ombudsman Service, whoever the exchange is and wherever it’s based. Getting your balance out is a matter between you and HTX, and the FCA’s notice simply points UK users to the exchange’s own website for the arrangements.
The broader point is about reach. A UK regulator has taken an offshore exchange to the High Court over its advertising, which is one of the very few levers it currently has over crypto firms at all.
What the FCA actually secured
The case ended in a Tomlin order. That’s a form of consent order where both sides agree terms and the court stays the proceedings rather than ruling on who was right. The agreed terms carry the weight; the judge decides nothing about the dispute itself.
Under the undertaking, Huobi Global S.A. will not “knowingly, directly or indirectly, communicate or cause to be communicated a financial promotion in contravention of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000”. It covers the HTX website, its apps and its social media accounts.
The commitment is qualified in a way the headline version of this story loses. It binds the company against knowing breaches of the promotion rules, which is narrower than a court-ordered ban on operating here, and it carries no finding that anything the exchange did before now was unlawful. The FCA’s notes to editors record that the settlement terms are confidential and that it does not amount to an admission of liability or wrongdoing by Huobi Global or anyone else. No penalty figure is published.
One other detail sits in those notes. Huobi Global S.A. is named as the first defendant in the proceedings, which implies there are others. The release doesn’t say who.
Why UK rules caught an exchange based elsewhere
Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act is the part of UK law that governs financial promotions. In plain terms, you can’t invite or induce someone in the UK to engage in investment activity unless you’re authorised by the FCA, or your promotion has been approved by a firm that is, or it fits a specific exemption.
Cryptoassets were brought inside that regime in October 2023. Since then, anyone marketing crypto to UK consumers has had to carry prescribed risk warnings, give first-time investors a 24-hour cooling-off period, and drop incentives such as refer-a-friend bonuses and free-crypto offers.
The trigger is the audience, not the address. A company registered anywhere in the world can fall foul of the rule by marketing to people here, which is the entire basis on which a London court could be involved at all.
The FCA commenced proceedings in the Business and Property Division of the High Court on 21 October 2025, and announced the action publicly the following February. Its release says HTX had “failed repeatedly to engage” with the regulator beforehand. That’s the FCA’s characterisation in its own notice rather than something quoted from the court order.
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.”
If you still have funds on the platform
HTX stopped UK deposits and new registrations itself, after proceedings started. The undertaking the FCA obtained concerns promotions, so the market exit was a step the company took rather than a remedy the order compelled. The two things arrived together, which is easy to read as one thing.
The release gives no figures for how many UK customers used the platform, or how much is sitting there as residual assets waiting to be withdrawn. Anyone affected should read HTX’s own notice about service availability and withdrawal arrangements, and should expect the usual identity checks on the way out. Our guide to withdrawals covers what to do when an exchange restricts or delays them, and if you’re moving coins off a platform for good, self-custody is the other half of that decision.
What to watch
Whether withdrawals actually complete without friction. A promotions settlement does nothing for someone whose money is stuck, and that’s the only measure of this case that will matter to the people holding balances.
Then the pattern. The FCA has now shown it will spend court time on an offshore exchange’s marketing, and its own notice points out that crypto in the UK stays largely unregulated, outside anti-money-laundering and promotions rules, until the wider regime arrives in October 2027. Until then, promotions enforcement is most of what the regulator has. If a second overseas exchange ends up in the same position, that becomes a policy, rather than one firm that stopped answering emails.