Is "Reverse Solicitation" Under Scrutiny? EU Probes Binance’s Services after Wind-Down Order

European Union regulators are examining whether Binance relied on "reverse solicitation" to continue serving customers in the bloc, the exemption that allows a firm to execute a trade a client has requested on their own initiative without holding local authorisation. The scrutiny comes after a wind-down order affecting the exchange's services in the region, and raises questions about how far cross-border crypto platforms can lean on the exemption.

A packed regulatory and product agenda

The same round of industry developments saw CFI launch seven-day gold trading, extending the metal's availability to weekends rather than the traditional Monday-to-Friday window. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority opened a crypto authorisation window, giving digital-asset firms a defined route to apply for permission to operate. Prediction market platform Polymarket, meanwhile, introduced new trading safeguards.

On the brokerage side, The5ers moved to connect client trading accounts to AI assistants ChatGPT and Claude. EC Markets doubled its UK revenue, ThinkMarkets returned to profit, and Alpaca pressed ahead with its expansion into Southeast Asia.

Elsewhere, the brand assets of MyForexFunds were sold to a Dubai-based firm, while FundedSeat shut down. Valbury added the DXtrade platform to its stack, and German authorities widened their crackdown on trading fraud.

Separate market data highlighted how concentrated retail profitability can be, with the top 1% of winning accounts taking 66.5% of profit. Capital.com broadened its offering with stocks and ETFs, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed suit against Cash FX, and Revolut extended its footprint into Argentina.

Taken together, the updates point to a week in which European supervision of crypto access, UK licensing pathways and product diversification across brokers dominated the agenda.