The Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom has issued out a memo warning traders against carrying out trading activities with over 100 cryptocurrency companies. According to the FCA, the companies mentioned have not undergone the required testing and have not registered as licensed service providers in the country. This recent news is coming off the back of the Ontario Securities Commission calling out Bybit and other cryptocurrency exchanges for failing to register their exchanges.
The FCA says more than 100 platforms are unregistered
According to the FCA, they previously rolled out a list of guidelines that crypto exchanges and companies operating in crypto-related activities should follow. In the released guidelines on January 10, the FCA pointed out that it mandated the crypto firms to follow the anti-money laundering and CFT laws.
Furthermore, the agency noted that it also ordered the companies in the region to register with the FCA. At this moment, a considerable part of the population has failed to register with them. In a statement by the head of enforcement of the FCA, Mark Steward, he posited that crypto entities that are yet to be regulated put their users and business partners under risk.
The FCA is worried about FOMO
Steward also noted that they had compiled a list of the companies that are yet to be registered, and investors and traders can check and be sure before using the platforms. This shows that the FCA, in light of the growing numbers of cryptocurrency investors across the United Kingdom, wants to ensure that they are closely monitoring the industry’s activities.
In a recent survey carried out by the agency, about 2.3 million residents of the United Kingdom now hold at least one form of crypto. Also, the survey showed that the proportion of people who are well versed or familiar with digital assets is gradually taking a downturn. Steward also mentioned that the fear of missing out is one factor driving most of the population in the country towards adopting digital assets.
The United Kingdom government has taken a subtle approach to regulate crypto across the country after it recently announced the banning of cryptocurrency derivatives in January.
