Most countries have been rather easy to follow with the path they have set out for cryptocurrencies and blockchain. While a few have pivoted like China, which wanted to make sure it remained under its control, and Russia, which is facing some unprecedented economic sanctions due to its invasion of Ukraine, the path has been relatively stable for most countries. The path for most countries has been one of chaos as regulation has not caught up but overall a whole lot of nothing. One country though has decided to forge its own unique path though.
The United Kingdom has and still maintains, some very strict crypto rules and laws. A variety of companies have had their ads pulled for violations including the likes of Coinbase, Papa Johns, and others. The agency that has been tasked with the regulation in the UK is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). While they still are issuing some confusing regulations, last week they ordered all Bitcoin ATMs to shut down in the country, they are striving to add the individuals necessary to learn and adapt. The most recent example of this is the job posting they just listed on LinkedIn for Head of Digital Assets. Moves like this are not as widespread in governments as one would like them to be but it is nice to see a country headed in the right direction.
Yesterday I did a double-take when I saw the headline about the United Kingdom Mint going to mint its own NFT. While the headlines that the mint was going to do this were a little wrong as what had happened was that U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak asked the Mint to mint an NFT it still is a sharp 180. Beyond that Minister Sunak further stated how he wanted the U.K. to lead the way in crypto. He also announced additional steps he wants to see the government take to move into the future including:
- Bring stablecoins within the U.K.’s existing regulations on electronic payments.
- Consult on a “world-leading regime” for regulating trade in other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
- Ask the Law Commission to consider the legal status of blockchain-based communities known as decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs.
- Examine the tax treatment of decentralized finance (DeFi) loans and “staking,” which gives crypto users the ability to earn interest on their savings.
- Establish a Cryptoasset Engagement Group that will be chaired by ministers and host members from U.K. regulators and crypto businesses.
- Explore the application of blockchain technology in issuing debt instruments.
Some of these things crypto purists will be very against like bringing in stablecoins to existing regulations but it is important that the government start doing something. City Minister John Glen went even further and stated
“We shouldn’t be thinking of regulation as a static, rigid thing, instead, we should be thinking in terms of regulatory ‘code’ — like computer code — which we refine and rewrite when we need to.”
These steps will overall help the crypto and blockchain environment especially if the refinement process is implemented and so the rules and regulations will be refined so that a great middle-ground can be found.
If the U.K. is able to do this it really couple help London establish its place as a traditional and crypto financial capital of the world. It would be one of the first cities to pull this off as even with New York City's talk it has not backed it up with much action. Other powerhouses like Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore have had varying levels of success depending on what your metric is. Overall the traditional finance powerhouses have lagged in crypto adoption since it runs counter to so much of traditional finance however London appears to be ready to break the mold and become the first hybrid!
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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