<p>The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, has conducted 87 inquiries into cryptocurrency companies so far this year, according to a Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b8af083c-e6bd-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc">report</a>. This is a 74% increase in the number of inquiries the FCA made between January and October of last year. </p> <p>The inquires the FCA has made includes both "early-stage scrutiny" as well as "full-blown enforcement investigations," according to the Financial Times. David Heffron, a partner at the Pinsent Masons law firm, tells the Financial Times that the increased scrutiny “reflects the FCA’s increasingly hands-on and no-nonsense approach to enforcing the law in the cryptocurrency market”</p> <p>The Block previously <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/31713/uk-regulator-looking-to-hire-series-of-cryptocurrency-specialists">reported</a> that the FCA was stepping up its scrutiny of the cryptocurrency space. In July, the regulatory body posted two job listings for candidates with in-depth crypto knowledge.</p>