On Tuesday, UK lawmakers voted in favor of officially recognizing cryptocurrency assets as regulated financial instruments and products.
The Financial Services and Markets Bill, which covers the UK’s economic strategy post-Brexit, was read by the House of Commons, Parliament’s lower house, on Tuesday. Parliamentarian Andrew Griffith presented an amendment to the bill that would have brought crypto assets inside the purview of regulated financial services in the country. The legislators evaluated this and other amendments.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency tethered to the value of other assets, such as the US dollar or gold. The draft bill already included proposals to extend existing restrictions to payments-focused stablecoins.
The Official Announcement:
During the parliamentary meeting, Griffith, the financial services and city minister said, “the substance here is to treat them [crypto] like other forms of financial assets and not to prefer them, but also to bring them within the scope of regulation for the first time,” Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of keeping the amendment in the legislative package.
The local crypto industry, buoyed by Rishi Sunak’s recent nomination as the country’s new prime minister, will likely applaud the ongoing efforts to provide widespread legal recognition for digital assets. While serving as Boris Johnson’s finance minister, Sunak introduced the markets bill, ultimately leading to stablecoin regulations.
Griffith explained that the crypto provision relies on a new term of “crypto asset” imposed by new clause 14 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which “clarifies that crypto assets could be brought within the scope of the existing provisions” Measures could be implemented to control the dissemination of information about cryptocurrencies and to criminalize businesses that do not have the proper licensing to operate in the country.
Conclusion:
While this does sound promising for UK natives, there is still a long way to go before these regulations become law. Let’s wait and see how long it takes for this law to pass and come into action.
