UK Paves the Way to Becoming a Global Crypto Hub

The U.K. has announced its long-awaited report on crypto regulations and is seeking consultations from market participants and industry experts before taking them to the next stage.

The crypto regulations from the United Kingdom are much anticipated after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his plans to make the nation a global crypto hub. Last Dec, the Treasury laid out plans for establishing a regulatory environment for stablecoin payments.

Early last month, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency announced a special unit to tackle crypto crimes. They were also looking to hire blockchain experts for their new crypto unit. Despite these small steps toward crypto regulations, the government also faced criticism from former Finance Minister – Philip Hammond.

Today, the government announced the next step for regulating cryptocurrency by seeking feedback from industry stakeholders.

UK Crypto Regulation Proposal

The government believes cryptocurrency and its activities should follow the same standards as other financial services. The consultation proposal is the second phase of the government’s phased approach to regulating cryptocurrency.

Screenshot from UK Crypto Regulation Proposal
Source: HM Treasury

In light of last year’s FTX collapse, the government has drafted rules to limit prevent history repeating, such as co-mingling of users’ funds with the firm’s funds. 

The proposal reads: “These provisions aim to protect investors’ rights to their assets while a firm is a going concern such that, if and when a custodian becomes insolvent, assets are returned to investors promptly and as whole as possible.”

The consultation will close on Apr. 30.

The Community Reacts Positively to the Proposal

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, has vocally expressed its support for HM Treasury’s proposals for the UK crypto regulations. The team further tweeted that they are looking forward to contributing after reviewing the details.

 The community members have largely supported the proposal so far and found it “promising.”

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Disclaimer

BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.

Source: https://beincrypto.com/uk-sets-out-plans-become-global-crypto-hub/