Financial regulators in the United Kingdom are reportedly planning to legislate new regulations for the crypto industry in the country.
According to Reuters, the UK Finance Ministry, Great Britain’s top financial regulator, plans to both develop and implement sweeping rules for regulating crypto.
Great Britain is following in the footsteps of the European Union (EU), which began deploying its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation in June after approving MiCA in May. The UK left the EU in early 2020 as part of Brexit.
According to the UK Finance Ministry, crypto assets will be regulated under current market law.
A pair of lawyers, Jonathan Cavill and Sophia Le Vesconte, say that the move from the UK comes at a time when the country risks missing out on the emerging digital asset market.
Says Cavill,
“It’s unlikely that crypto regulation will be easily shoe-horned into the existing regulatory framework.
The reality is that as the market develops at pace, the UK runs the risk of being left behind if it fails to attract crypto businesses.”
According to LeVesconte, the UK’s approach is broadly in line with the EU.
In September, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced they would be cracking down on illicit and non-compliant financial promotion starting in October. The regulator even said that crypto-focused memes that encourage investing in digital assets may constitute non-compliant promotions and could be subject to the law.
