UK set to announce new crypto regulations: FT

Quick Take

The UK plans to legislate for new regulatory powers to police crypto companies.
The FCA may clampdown on crypto adverts by overseas companies.

The UK government is expected to announce new rules governing the sale and marketing of crypto assets.

Regulators will have more power to police the sector, including a clampdown on crypto-related advertisements by companies based outside the UK, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority will also monitor how crypto companies operate.

The proposed powers will be added to a piece of legislation that is already before parliament. The Financial Services and Markets Bill is designed to shape the UK's financial sector post-Brexit and includes sections defining stablecoins and crypto assets.

Crypto industry leaders have long called for a more-comprehensive framework in the UK, similar to the European Union's Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) law or some of the various plans being discussed in the United States. Instead, the UK prefers a piecemeal approach of incremental changes, which has frustrated some.

Asked last month how an FTX-style collapse could be avoided, Ian Taylor, executive director of industry association CryptoUK, told British lawmakers the country's failure to design a proper regulatory framework for crypto trading venues and service providers hadn't helped.

''We need to put in place clear guard rails for these kinds of centralized actors and this is what founding members of CryptoUK came to this select committee in 2018 and asked for,'' he said.