The Financial Conduct Authority and HTX, a cryptocurrency exchange already under UK and EU sanctions, have opened talks to settle a lawsuit accusing the platform of illegally marketing crypto services to UK consumers, according to court filings first reported by Reuters.
The regulator took the case to London’s High Court in October 2025, naming Huobi Global, the Panama-incorporated entity behind the exchange formerly known as Huobi, alongside “persons unknown” said to operate and control it. It was the first time the FCA had sued a crypto firm specifically over how it marketed to British consumers.
The FCA has said HTX ran promotions on major platforms including X, Telegram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn, and accused the exchange of ignoring repeated attempts at contact while operating what the regulator called an “opaque operational structure.” The regulator secured permission on 4 February 2026 to serve its claim on HTX internationally.
None of that settlement activity had previously been public. Coverage of the case until now had stopped at the FCA’s original 2025 lawsuit and its February 2026 accusation; this week’s reporting, drawn from a fresh review of High Court filings, is the first disclosure that the two sides have been negotiating privately since March and that the court has already extended the pause twice.
HTX’s own website carries an undated notice stating that its products and services aren’t intended for UK users. The FCA has nonetheless placed HTX on its list of unauthorised firms in both 2023 and 2024, a designation that leaves users without Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection or a route to recover funds if the platform fails, and has reportedly pressed social media companies to remove HTX products from UK app stores and block UK-based accounts.
Settlement talks have run since March
The two sides began trading settlement emails in March 2026, moving into three months of talks before the High Court extended the pause by a further two months on 25 June, taking it to late August 2026.
An HTX spokesperson, asked about the case rather than the settlement talks specifically, said the exchange “remains dedicated to upholding high standards of compliance, transparency, and user protection” and that it would “continue working collaboratively with the regulators to support the sustainable development of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.” Lawyers for HTX didn’t respond to requests for comment on where the talks stand, and the FCA also declined to comment on the negotiations.
A first for FCA enforcement
Nick Jones, founder and chief executive of Zumo, a UK-regulated digital-assets platform, said pursuing HTX for financial promotion breaches shows “the regulator is signalling the end of enforcement-free marketing for overseas crypto firms and forcing compliance across the sector.”
The case’s own novelty backs that reading: it marks the first time the FCA has sued a crypto firm specifically over how it marketed to UK consumers, rather than over an unauthorised business model more broadly. The timing also lines up with the regulator’s wider schedule: the FCA’s own published timeline has its authorisation gateway opening for applications on 30 September 2026, closing on 28 February 2027, ahead of the full regime commencing on 25 October 2027.
The UK’s cryptoasset financial promotion regime itself has applied to firms marketing to UK consumers, wherever they are based, since 8 October 2023.
A separate sanctions problem
HTX’s difficulties with UK authorities extend beyond the marketing case. The exchange was added to the UK’s Russia sanctions list on 26 May 2026, with the government citing suspected involvement in channelling more than $1.5 billion to Russia, and was reportedly added to the European Union’s equivalent list around the same period.
The sanctions designation and the financial-promotions case are legally distinct: one concerns Russia-sanctions evasion, the other unauthorised marketing to UK consumers. Both point the same way, towards a UK regulatory environment closing in on an exchange that maintains it doesn’t serve UK customers at all.
Whether other offshore exchanges marketing into the UK face comparable action before the gateway opens on 30 September is, for now, an open question the FCA hasn’t addressed.
