In the latest crypto news, it appears that Solana largest DeFi protocol, Marinade Finance, has blocked access to its site for UK users. The reason appears to be due to compliance issues with the country’s regulations.
Summary
Crypto news: Solana’s DeFi protocol blocks UK users from accessing site
Today’s crypto news comes from Marinade Finance, Solana’s largest decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol, which has apparently had to block access to the site for UK users.
The reason for this drastic decision seems to be related to protocol compliance issues with new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations.
Currently, the login page for UK users displays a warning message, although it states that
“Users can withdraw cash, request delayed tickets or delay unstake via our SDK”.
Marinade Finance’s action is not so different from that of Orca Finance, Solana’s largest decentralised exchange, which had to add geo-blocking for UK users.
At the time of writing, Marinade Finance holds the largest total locked value (or TVL) on Solana’s blockchain, with $248 million spread across native and liquid staking products. Notably, according to DefiLlama, the total activity on Solana’s blockchain is approximately $366 million.
Crypto news: Not only Solana’s DeFi protocol blocked in the UK
In addition to Solana’s larger DeFi protocol, other companies appear to be moving to block users in the UK.
Indeed, the restrictions on such users appear to be a response to the FCA’s new advertising rules, which restrict the marketing of cryptocurrency-related products or services.
As such, Marinade Finance and Orca Finance join the likes of crypto exchange ByBit, which announced in September that it was suspending its operations in the country because it was not on the FCA’s crypto registry.
In addition, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, has also had to decide to stop accepting new users from the UK in order to comply with the new regulations.
JP Morgan’s Chase Bank also bans crypto payments in the UK, but only for fraud
At the end of September, JP Morgan’s consumer bank Chase Bank also announced a ban on crypto payments for UK customers.
Not only that, but Chase Bank added that it will stop payments that it even suspects are crypto-related.
However, unlike the other firms, Chase Bank has decided to justify such a choice not on the basis of compliance with the new FCA regulations, but to keep people’s money safe.
In practice, JP Morgan’s consumer bank only justified its distance from crypto by citing an issue related to the increase in fraud against UK residents.
