By Kirstin Ridley and Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON, Feb 10 - Britain's markets regulator said on Tuesday it had asked social media companies and app stores to block access to crypto exchange HTX in the UK.
The Financial Conduct Authority, which filed a lawsuit against HTX in October accusing it of unlawfully promoting crypto asset services to UK consumers, said Tuesday it had asked Alphabet's Google and Apple to remove HTX products from UK app stores, and asked social media companies to block HTX's accounts
to UK-based consumers.
HTX, whose owners were not identified in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The crypto exchange, which appears on a warning list by the UK regulator for potentially promoting financial products without permission, repeatedly issued illegal crypto promotions to British consumers, the regulator said.
FIRM HAS 'AN OPAQUE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE'
Regulators and authorities around the world have for years warned that nascent crypto markets - which are generally less regulated than mainstream financial markets - present risks to investors.
"HTX operates an opaque organisational structure, hiding the identities of its owners and the operators of its website," the FCA said, adding that repeated attempts to engage with the company had been ignored.
The regulator said HTX had taken steps to restrict new UK customers from registering accounts, but that existing UK users could log in and access unlawful financial promotions.
HTX, formerly known as Huobi, was founded in 2013 and names Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun as a global adviser. Sun was not named in the lawsuit.
Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said this was the first time the regulator had taken such enforcement action against a crypto firm for illegal marketing of products to UK consumers.
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley and Elizabeth Howcroft, additional reporting by Muvija M.; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
