Solana’s largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, Marinade Finance, has banned users in the UK from accessing the site due to “compliance issues” regarding Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations.
The landing page for users in the UK displays a warning message, although it says that “users can withdraw liquidity, claim delayed tickets or delay withdrawing their stake through our SDK.”
Marinade is responsible for the majority of the total value (TVL) on the Solana blockchain, with $248 million spread across native and liquid staking products. The amount of assets across the entire Solana blockchain is approximately $350 million, according to this report DefiLlama.
Marinade currently offers annual returns of 8.15% for native staking and 7.7% for liquid staking, with native staking rolled out earlier this year.
Orca Finance, Solana’s largest decentralized exchange, has added geoblocking for UK users. The restrictions against UK users appear to be a response to the FCA’s new promotional rules, which restrict the marketing of crypto-related products or services.
Centralized crypto firms such as Bybit and Paypal have withdrawn from the UK market, while Binance has temporarily halted new UK signups following the release of the FCA’s promotion rule. Luno also blocked some customers from investing in crypto.
But geo-restrictions are rare for decentralized protocols, most of which do not require know-your-customer (KYC) checks.
Marinade Finance did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.