Binance Focuses on UK as US Makes it ‘Very Difficult’ to do Business: CSO

The ongoing legal battle between Coinbase and the SEC has Binance questioning the regulatory environment in the US

article-image

mundissima/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Binance Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann said that the regulatory environment, or lack thereof, in the US has made it “very difficult” to do business. 

Hillmann said that the US “has been very confusing over the past six months” and referred to the ongoing legal battle between Coinbase and the SEC.

In comments made at the Financial Times’ crypto and digital assets summit, Hillmann said that Binance would do “everything” it could to be regulated in the UK following the “very difficult time” in the US.

In early May, Binance weighed in on the UK’s crypto consultation after the UK government said that it wanted to become a “competitive location for sustainable finance.”

Binance said that it supports expanding “specified investments to include crypto assets.” 

As Blockworks previously noted, the exchange was more agreeable than other crypto firms on the letter. It even agreed with the “activity based” NFT regulation, which Andreessen Horowitz did not completely comply with in its letter. 

“The introduction of formal regulatory admission practices, alongside greater market surveillance and regulation in general, will help to reduce bad actors,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter.

Loading Tweet..

In 2021, Binance subsidiary Binance Markets Limited was banned by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority after the FCA said that the subsidiary was not “permitted to undertake any regulated activity.”

But in early February, CZ tweeted that he was “happy” to see progress being made in UK regulation, which he noted is “progressive.”

In the US, Binance was sued by the CFTC back in March. The regulator alleged that the exchange attempted to evade regulation in the US.

“For years, Binance knew they were violating CFTC rules, working actively to both keep the money flowing and avoid compliance,” CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Flashnote Template (41).png

Research

We believe that few tokens at the application layer are diverging more from fundamentals than ZORA. Its fully-diluted P/S sits at 90x, pricing significant growth despite a consistent decline in weekly revenues since late July. We foresee an 80% decrease in protocol net margins due to a recent update to the fee structure that reduces trading fees from 3% to 1%, while boosting creators’ portion of the fee split. ZORA’s supply overhang also represents a near-term headwind, with 45% of ZORA’s supply (4.5B tokens or $350M at current prices) earmarked for the team & investors beginning to unlock on October 23, 2025 (36-month linear vesting schedule).

article-image

Insiders have the best information — markets should be willing to pay for it

article-image

The CFTC-regulated exchange is opening doors to crypto builders and traders through grants, partnerships, and new deposit options

by Blockworks /
article-image

DFS tells banking organizations to integrate blockchain monitoring tools to curb money laundering and sanctions risks

by Blockworks /
article-image

New short and long-term priorities include L1 gas boosts, ZK-EVMs, privacy reads, and a lean, quantum-resistant Ethereum

by Blockworks /
article-image

The new stBTC token redistributes Bitcoin gas fees to users, creating liquid yield without inflation or lockups

by Blockworks /
article-image

The reserve will collect protocol revenues to back W token, alongside new yield and unlock schedule

by Blockworks /