Financial Conduct Authority, FCA cryptocurrency guidelines for the UK have been introduced by the authority applicable to the cryptocurrency investor, traders, companies, and exchanges in the United Kingdom (UK).
The taskforce for crypto-assets has published the UK final cryptocurrency guidelines regarding the digital currencies under the regulatory authority, to make it clear for the participants of crypto space that whether they are subjected to the regulatory authority’s rules and requirements or not.
These guidelines also intend to promote a better understanding of the protection that they have and about the markets of digital currency.
FCA stated that these guidelines were drafted after garnering support from various FinTech startups, digital currency exchanges, trade organizations, large banks, consultancy firms, academia for its proposal in the draft guidance.
While the unregulated decentralized digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether which are utilized as means of exchange are not held under the parameters of FCA. Hence, the exchanges and trading venues for Bitcoin and other participants of the market who offer platforms for trading the exchange tokens do not need to have authorization before conducting the business.
It is worth noting as per FCA exchange tokens can be utilized for the international remittances, which is a regulated mode of payment. Cryptocurrency exchanges that facilitate any regulated payment by using exchange tokens are ought to seek permission from FCA.
Furthermore, the regulatory authority stated that digital assets including stablecoins and utility tokens could be utilized for the facilitation of payments that are regulated, even though the utility token is classified as the unregulated crypto assets until they fulfill the condition of being electronic money.
Lastly, all the cryptocurrency firms in the U.K that deal with buying, selling, storing, and creating cryptoassets are likely to fall under the spectrum of the regulations of FCA.
These firms would have to get authorization from the regulatory authority and therefore adhere to all the regulations. Likewise, consumers, investment exchanges, investment managers, professional advisors, organizations that are related to digital assets are affected by these statutes of FCA.
