Binance Aims to Return to the UK Amid Suspicions of Transfers to Iran

A return against the tide. Binance is preparing for its grand return to the British market, five years after being ousted. According to the Telegraph, the platform is actively working to reapply for authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK financial regulator, before the new crypto regime comes into effect on October 25, 2027. This ambition comes at the worst possible time: the exchange is simultaneously facing accusations of allowing billions of dollars linked to Iran to flow through its platforms. Key points of this article: * Binance has prepared its return to the British market, five years after being ousted, by submitting an application for authorization to the FCA. * The exchange is facing accusations of transactions related to Iran, complicating its return to the UK. Binance's authorization was revoked by the FCA in June 2021, and its unused permissions were formally canceled in June 2023. Since late 2023, the exchange has not accepted any new British registrations due to lack of approval. The application window for the new crypto regime will open on September 30, 2026, with the first decisions expected in 2027, before the full implementation of the framework on October 25, 2027. In other words, Binance is not playing its card just yet. The application it is about to submit must convince a regulator that, last time, made a decision in just a few weeks. According to Crypto Briefing, which gathered information from the Telegraph, Binance denies any wrongdoing regarding the Iranian issue and claims to take compliance seriously. Approximately $8 billion in transactions related to Iran are said to have passed through Binance since 2018. Of this total, nearly $1.7 billion from accounts linked to the platform has been traced back to Iranian entities, according to a report dated February 2026. The Wall Street Journal mentioned $850 million in transactions linked to a key Iranian financier by May 2026. There is nothing new, in fact, in Binance's risk profile in this specific area. Binance already settled a $4.3 billion fine with U.S. authorities at the end of 2023, including charges related to sanctions violations. Its founder Changpeng Zhao served four months in prison as part of this agreement before being pardoned by the U.S. presidency. The UK is not the only point of friction for Binance at the moment. Since July 1, 2026, the exchange has suspended its services in several EU countries after withdrawing its MiCA license application in Greece, the European regulatory framework that requires a single approval to operate in the Twenty-Seven. Two regulators to convince at the same time, and only one reputation to achieve it. The UK FCA has shown no particular leniency towards the exchange in the past: it was the one that initiated the 2021 ban, against a backdrop of serious shortcomings in anti-money laundering efforts. Binance claims that a complete internal review has revealed no violations of sanctions. Binance is betting on the long game to erase these episodes, a strategy already proven in other markets where the platform eventually returned after a regulatory desert crossing. However, the European precedent leaves little doubt about the difficulty of the exercise: between the withdrawal of licenses and the PSANs struggling to obtain their MiCA approval, crypto compliance in 2026 no longer tolerates yesterday's gray areas.