Binance Markets Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has been banned in the United Kingdom.

The decree came from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. The authority said in a statement Saturday that Binance is “not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the U.K.” without “prior written consent of the FCA.” The authority added that “no other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of U.K. authorization, registration of license to conduct regulated activity in the U.K.”

The FCA went on to add that “most firms advertising and selling investments in crypto-assets are not authorized by the FCA. This means that if you invest in certain crypto assets you will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if things go wrong.”

The Guardian noted today that the regulator did not explain why it had targeted Binance. The trading of cryptocurrencies is not directly regulated in the U.K. However, services such as derivatives do require authorization.

The U.K. is not the only place where Binance has been forced to withdraw services from recently. A Binance support ticket published June 26 states that the company has withdrawn services from Ontario in Canada since it became a “restricted jurisdiction.”

According to Coindesk, Binance withdrew its services from Ontario not because it was specifically targeted but rather of legal action taken against other exchanges for allegedly breaching the Canadian province’s securities laws. In one case, an exchange called Bybit was alleged by the Ontario Securities Commission to be breaching the province’s laws, while Poloniex and KuCoin were also targeted.

“We take our legal obligations very seriously and engage with regulators and law enforcement in a collaborative fashion,” the spokesperson for Binance told Coindesk today.

That the U.K. is specifically targeting Binance but seemingly not saying why is odd. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume by multiples. Its trading volume in the last 24 hours per data from Coinranking was $13.83 billion, whereas second-place Huobi Global had only $3.63 billion in trades. If the FCA knows something about Binance to justify its ban, it’s not clear why it isn’t saying what it is.

Image: 149561324@N03/Flickr