The UK government said on Monday that regulations governing cryptocurrency companies will take effect in 2027. The “firm and proportionate” regulations will assist the sector while safeguarding consumers.
According to a statement from the finance ministry, cryptocurrency companies will be “regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the same way as other providers of financial products — including being subject to established transparency standards.”
According to the FCA, regulations pertaining to a particular framework for cryptocurrencies will be released by 2026.
“Bringing crypto into the regulatory perimeter is a crucial step in securing the UK’s position as a world leading financial centre in the digital age,” finance minister Rachel Reeves said in the statement.
“By giving firms clear rules of the road, we are providing the certainty they need to invest, innovate and create high skilled jobs here in the UK.”
Reeves added that the legislation will hand millions of people “strong consumer protections” by “locking dodgy actors out of the UK market”.
Similar legislation was introduced by the European Union a year ago, and the US is gradually enacting its own regulations pertaining to cryptocurrency regulation.
Following a number of problems in recent years, including high-profile exchange crashes, regulators have begun to scrutinize digital tokens, among which bitcoin is the largest.
Do Kwon, a cryptocurrency billionaire, was sentenced to 15 years in jail by a US court on Thursday for fraud connected to his company’s collapse, which destroyed $40 billion in investor funds and rocked the world’s cryptocurrency markets.
