Share this article

UK’s FCA Seeks Public and Industry Views on Crypto Regulation

The Financial Conduct Authority is seeking views on intermediaries, staking, lending and borrowing, and decentralised finance.

FCA (CoinDesk Archives)
FCA (CoinDesk Archives)

What to know:

  • The Financial Conduct Authority is seeking feedback on various aspects of cryptoassets, including intermediaries and decentralized finance.
  • The discussion paper follows draft legislation by the Treasury aimed at bringing specific cryptoasset activities under FCA regulation.
  • The FCA aims to create a crypto regime that ensures market integrity and consumer protection while allowing innovation.

The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking views on intermediaries, staking, lending, borrowing, and decentralised finance (DeFi), in a discussion paper released on Friday.

The discussion paper follows draft legislation by the Treasury that was announced on Tuesday. Once the legislation passes it will bring specific crypto activities within the FCA’s regulation, the regulator said on its website.

Story continues
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the State of Crypto Newsletter today. See all newsletters

"Crypto is a growing industry. Currently largely unregulated, we want to create a crypto regime that gives firms the clarity they need to safely innovate, while delivering appropriate levels of market integrity and consumer protection," said David Geale, executive director of payments and digital finance at the FCA.

The crypto industry has said the regulator, which has had oversight of crypto since 2020 under its anti-money laundering rules, has been too restrictive at times. It has registered 51 firms of the 368 applications it's received in the past five years. A new authorization regime for offerings should kick in by 2026.

Among the topics in the discussion paper is whether firms should be able to accept credit cards to pay for crypto purchases.

"We are considering a range of restrictions, including restricting the use of credit cards to directly buy cryptoassets, and using a credit line provided by an e-money firm to do so," the discussion paper said.

The deadline for comments is June 13 and the FCA will consult on the final regime later this year.


UPDATE (May 2, 12:10 UTC): Adds no. of firms approved since 2020, credit card purchases starting in fourth paragraph.

Camomile Shumba

Camomile Shumba is a CoinDesk regulatory reporter based in the UK. Previously, Shumba interned at Business Insider and Bloomberg. Camomile has featured in Harpers Bazaar, Red, the BBC, Black Ballad, Journalism.co.uk, Cryptopolitan.com and South West Londoner.

Shumba studied politics, philosophy and economics as a combined degree at the University of East Anglia before doing a postgraduate degree in multimedia journalism. While she did her undergraduate degree she had an award-winning radio show on making a difference. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.

Camomile Shumba