Marinade Finance, the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol running on the Solana blockchain, has reportedly started blocking users from the United Kingdom. Customers in the U.K. discovered the problem on Oct. 23 while trying to access Marinade’s website from local IP addresses and were met with this message:
“Access to this site is unavailable in the United Kingdom due to compliance concerns relating to rules and regulations promulgated by the U.K. Finance [sic] Conduct Authority. Users may withdraw liquidity, claim delayed tickets, or delay unstake via our SDK.”
Marinade Finance has around 75,000 users with a total value locked of over $265 million at the time of writing, accounting for 70% of all the funds locked on the Solana blockchain.
Related: Huobi, KuCoin, over 140 crypto exchanges ‘non-authorized’ — UK regulator
While the message from Marinade doesn’t specify the rules, the protocol isn’t the first to quit the U.K. market in recent months. On Oct. 16, crypto exchange Binance stopped accepting users from the U.K., citing certification issues with its local business partner. PayPal has also halted crypto transactions for its U.K. customers, as did Bybit in late September.
On Oct. 8, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority…
