To safeguard users’ interests and ensure financial stability, E-Money is subject to certain prudential requirements, including capital and liquidity rules. Both individuals and businesses involved in crypto-related activities are required to meet tax obligations. For individuals, this includes Capital Gains Tax (CGT), while companies are subject to Corporation Tax (Bollaert et al. 2021). To provide clarity and cryptocurrency regulation uk promote compliance in tax reporting, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has released precise guidelines. These efforts contribute significantly to establishing crypto-assets as assets and integrating them into financial practices. In today’s ever-evolving global financial landscape, crypto-assets have gained remarkable popularity and significance.

How do I get a crypto license in the UK?

If a cryptocurrency firm does not meet these criteria, then they must apply to the FCA for authorisation. This allows the FCA to have extensive oversight of the operations of cryptocurrency firms and https://www.xcritical.com/ the promotion of their services to consumers. The next step came on November 6, 2023, when the Bank of England along with other government entities, announced the intention to legislate fiat-backed stablecoins within the broader financial services’ regulatory framework, which was accompanied by a discussion paper. The proposed bill intends to create a third category of personal property, recognising the unique nature of digital assets.

Cryptocurrency Regulation Tracker

In February 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK joined other Western countries in imposing sweeping sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime. In March 2022, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Bank of England released a joint statement reminding cryptocurrency service providers of their responsibility to contribute to sanctions enforcement. Cryptocurrencies themselves are not regulated by the FCA and are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The only cryptoasset that is FCA regulated is security tokens, tokens with specific characteristics that provide rights and obligations to a specific investment such as a share or debt instrument. There is a grey cloud over the regulatory framework governing digital assets in the UK but the UK have recently amended the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA) to shape the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

EU Commission warns overlapping rules offer loopholes for Big Tech

This will only be achieved by close co-operation between regulating entities and crypto businesses’ compliance teams. Both emerging-market and advanced economies still lag on comprehensive regulation and oversight. Only 19 of the 60 countries studied have regulations for taxation, AML/CFT, consumer protection, and licensing. In October 2020, CBPL agreed to what is known as a ‘voluntary requirement’ or ‘VREQ’ with the FCA. Voluntary requirements are regulatory obligations that firms agree to abide by with the regulator. The voluntary requirement was agreed after what the FCA described as “significant engagement” between it and CBPL “relating to concerns about the effectiveness of CBPL’s financial crime control framework”.

According to the Crypto Asset Taskforce, cryptocurrency operators that use them as an exchange tool must comply with regulators under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSR). Also, direct investments in crypto assets fall under the regulatory framework only if they are security tokens. This means that even though these practices mirror regulated standards, they do not come with regulatory oversight or protections such as FSCS and FOS coverage. For each country, the regulated actors can be cryptocurrency issuers, cryptocurrency exchanges, traditional financial institutions, service providers, or miners. This means recognizing that the regulatory treatment of crypto-assets should be tailored to specific situations instead of employing a uniform approach (Ferreira and Sandner 2021).

Countries regulate actors in the crypto sector using tax policy, requirements to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, consumer protection rules, and licensing and disclosure obligations. The German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch—StGB), the Code of Criminal Procedures (Strafprozessordnung—StPO), the Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz—GWG) and the supplementary legislation are the basis of the AML legislation. Being an EU member state, German law is influenced by EU standards and regulations for AML and CFT (Meyer et al. 2022). In 2020, the implementation of the 5th AMLD extended the reach of AML and CFT regulations to include providers of crypto-asset services (Racetin et al. 2022). This introduced KYC procedures and mandatory reporting obligations to the industry (Renduchintala et al. 2022).

Firms looking to launch cryptoassets, or products connected to cryptoassets, in the UK will need to continuously consider the current UK regulatory landscape. Investor protection standards and ensuring that customers understand the risks involved in investing in cryptocurrencies, the report said. They are actively working with local regulators to provide the necessary knowledge for users to make informed investment decisions. In the ‘traditional’ ICO fraud, demonstrating that property was obtained by unlawful conduct would require proof of fraud – false representation with intent to cause a loss (for example).

Each crypto-asset’s distinct traits and intended function determine how they are regulated in the UK. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has taken a prominent position in defining the categorization of crypto-assets and the level of regulatory supervision needed. Parties involved in crypto-asset-related pursuits are required to abide by AML and CFT rules.

Cryptoassets will now be within the scope of regulations on “regulated activities” which include managing investments, issuing electronic money and arranging deals in investments in the UK. Such regulated activities are subject to the general prohibition in FSMA 2000, that is that they must not be carried out by a person unless that person is either authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or is otherwise exempt under FSMA 2000. It will define a set of new regulated activities relating to the intermediation of cryptoassets, drawing from analogous activities in the existing regulatory perimeter. This briefing gives a high-level comparison of some of the key areas of HM Treasury’s original proposals (the HMT Original Proposals) and the HMT Final Proposals, as well as incorporating some of the detail from the regulators’ discussion papers on the stablecoin regime. In the case of the stablecoin regime, the FCA and BoE will need to consider feedback from their discussion papers before they can consult on detailed rules. There remains a lot of work still to be done before the industry can plan for and adapt to its new regulatory reality.

In today’s financial environment, “crypto-asset” denotes a digital or virtual asset that leverages encryption technology to protect and authenticate transactions and manage ownership changes. Blockchain or distributed ledger technologies serve as the underlying framework for the decentralization and immutability of crypto-assets. Crypto-assets stand out due to their cryptographic characteristics, which offer exceptional security and confidence without the requirement for conventional intermediaries like banks or financial organizations (Alaassar et al. 2023).

While this market continues to move at pace, UK regulation is progressing under a more gradual, phased approach to include various forms of cryptoassets. The intention is to implement a more expansive, comprehensive regulatory regime, underpinned by the Government’s legislative plans. Yet, with an eye on continued consumer protection, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in September 2023 shared a warning that cryptoasset firms market their services appropriately with the new rules coming into effect this year.

The term “systemic DSA firm” is used to refer to entities which form part of systemic DSA payment systems recognised either by Part 5 of the Banking Act 2009 or designated by HM Treasury. In the case of stablecoins, this might include – but is not limited to – the issuer of a stablecoin, a custodian, or a third-party service provider. The consultation response was published in April 2022, confirming the government’s plans to legislate to bring certain activities relating to stablecoins into the regulatory perimeter for financial services. This will follow the approach consulted on, including the scope, regulatory trigger points and the existing UK Market Abuse Regime (MAR).

Overly burdensome or restrictive measures could stifle innovation and deter legitimate businesses from participating in the sector (Bellucci et al. 2022). Striking the right balance between regulation and innovation is crucial for nurturing the potential benefits that blockchain technology and crypto-assets can bring to various industries. This sector is not without its challenges and difficulties, as clients may face various legal, regulatory and practical hurdles and obstacles when engaging in crypto assets activities in the UK.

This new research categorizes and explains how the world’s largest economies and those with high rates of cryptocurrency activity are regulating cryptocurrencies within their jurisdictions. To acquire the required license, providers must have their company’s headquarters located within the EU. Besides, a detailed business plan must be submitted, as well as the organizational structure and a detailed description of the planned internal control procedures (BaFin 2020). Regarding other key changes, interested parties will be well advised to keep abreast of regulatory updates from HM Treasury and the FCA, given their broad statutory powers to regulate in the cryptoasset space. Where there is no issuer of a particular cryptoasset – such as Bitcoin – it will be the responsibility of a cryptoasset trading venue to take on the responsibilities of an issuer if it wishes to admit that asset to trading on its venue. [9] JMLSG, Current Guidance, JMLSG (n.d.); The Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG), Prevention of money laundering/combating terrorist financing – 2020 Revised Version, Guidance for the UK Financial Sector, JMLSG (June 2020).

It requires Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to obtain and share information about the sender and receiver of crypto assets during or before the transaction. There are notable differences between MiCAR and the UK’s regulatory plans, such as categorisation of cryptoassets, the scope of regulated activities and disclosure obligations for cryptoasset issuers. And so, regulatory divergence is an additional challenge for this global and highly interconnected market. In comparison to the EU’s Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCAR), the UK’s approach is more gradual, initially focusing on stablecoins. MiCAR, due to take effect in 2024, aims to comprehensively regulate the crypto industry across the EU, covering various types of cryptoassets from the start, including stablecoins.

• A proactive, welcoming webpage or agency communication vehicle where companies can ask questions directly of the regulators would be a good start and show the UK’s commitment to bringing in technological advancements.
• To provide clarity and promote compliance in tax reporting, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has released precise guidelines.
• The rules may also result in a more general shift in recovery strategies to earlier, quicker freezing and recovery of cryptoassets, shifting the burden onto civil recovery and proving a useful tool for the enterprising asset recovery practitioner.
• The Government proposes to establish an issuance and disclosure regime for cryptoassets grounded in the intended reform of the UK prospectus regime.

Despite the UK’s concerted efforts to incorporate AML and CFT regulations into the crypto-asset sector, several challenges persist. Notably, the pseudonymous nature of many cryptocurrencies presents difficulties in ascertaining the true identity of users engaged in transactions (Kostoula 2023). Furthermore, the global and decentralized nature of crypto-asset exchanges can result in discrepancies in regulatory enforcement across jurisdictions. Overcoming such challenges may require enhanced international cooperation to achieve more comprehensive results in combating financial crime. Unlike exchange tokens, these tokens are classified as securities, as they derive their value from underlying assets or investment contracts (Ferreira and Sandner 2021).

Based on raw cryptocurrency transaction volume, the UK has become the world’s third-largest economy after the USA and India (Vardai 2023). Before the regulatory changes in 2022, the revenue obtained from cryptocurrencies in the UK averaged $0.89 billion. After regulatory changes, the revenue from crypto-assets market in the UK grew to $1.94 billion. It is projected that the revenue in the UK’s crypto currencies market would reach $2.53 in by the close of 2024.

Another critical aspect of crypto-asset regulation is the prevention of illicit financial activities. Cryptocurrencies’ pseudonymous nature can facilitate illicit transactions, raising concerns for law enforcement and financial intelligence units. Regulators can effectively fight against the misuse of crypto-assets by implementing measures that prevent ML and TF, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the system. As crypto-assets continue to gain mainstream attention, attracting institutional investors and retail participants, establishing clear rules and guidelines can reduce uncertainty and foster confidence in the market.

In addition to the registration fee, authorized companies are also required to pay a periodic fee, which is calculated using a specific formula that takes into account the application fee, the company’s valuation, and the number of calendar months. In the first year, authorized companies are only required to pay a portion of the fee based on the number of months remaining in the payment year. When applying for a cryptocurrency license in the UK, it is possible to withdraw an application during the authorization process, in which case the application fee is not refundable. Applicants usually withdraw from the process if they cannot provide all the required information, or do not meet the deadlines. As such, HM Treasury proposes to capture cryptoasset activities provided in, or to the United Kingdom.