While many businesses continue to operate without permission, Crypto.com is the newest to register with the FCA in the UK.
There are still more unregistered cryptocurrency-related firms than ones that are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom.
A total of 37 organizations have been given the go-ahead to provide services in the nation, and Crypto.com is the most recent organization from the bitcoin ecosystem to register with the FCA.
In 2022, only seven companies successfully completed the registration process to receive approval for the Money Laundering Regulations.
This includes Wintermute Trading LTD, eToro UK, DRW Global Markets LTD, Zodia Markets (UK) Limited, Uphold Europe Limited, Rubicon Digital UK Limited, and The seventh is Crypto.com, and it is listed under FORIS DAX UK Limited.
For the goal of preventing money laundering (AML), the FCA has also established a list of U.K.-based companies that continue to engage in “crypto asset activities.”
The lengthy list mostly includes companies that provide a range of foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading services.
In order to provide the Financial Conduct Authority the ability to oversee enterprises operating in the sector and implement anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, new rules with a focus on cryptocurrencies were put in place in January 2020.
Applying for a temporary registration regime (TRR) was a requirement for businesses, and failure to do so might result in legal action. Businesses had just over a year to complete their applications.
The organization was clear that it does not have regulatory authority over the entire cryptocurrency landscape and does not have consumer protection authority.
The FCA also said that it has a limited ability to register cryptocurrency exchanges with headquarters in the UK for anti-money laundering reasons.
It went on to say that the TRR was created to enable crypto businesses that were already striving to register to keep their temporary trading licenses throughout the procedure.
The FCA registration process for businesses remained open throughout the TRR, and it will be open until the deadline in April 2022.
The regulator emphasized again that businesses shouldn’t trade before being registered. With the exception of those for whom it was determined that temporary registration should remain in place, the Financial Conduct Authority completed evaluations of all enterprises during the TRR.
There was just one company mentioned on the most recent FCA list of businesses having interim registration as of August 17.
The only company on this list that has slowly seen customers leave through 2021 and 2022 is Revolut, which provides a variety of digital banking services.
The FCA declined to make any comments about the specific firm’s current temporary registration status.
In a recent article, a representative for the Financial Conduct Authority said that the requirements it established for registration were meant to support the innovation that the sector had promised to bring about while also giving investors a secure environment:
“Successful registration depends upon a firm meeting the minimum standards we expect to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, and we have seen too many financial crime red flags missed by the crypto asset businesses seeking registration.”
The Financial Conduct Authority will continue to evaluate registration applications for cryptocurrency exchanges and service providers, highlighting the significance of basic criteria to guarantee the availability of suitable mechanisms to detect and prevent the flow of monies connected to illicit activities:
“We have seen, as a result, new regulated firms, many of them drawing on the use of crypto or its underlying technology. Strong, well-respected regulation helps innovators by providing consumer and investor confidence.”
The FCA conceded it lacks the power to take action against unregistered operators in the nation, but it nevertheless monitors these businesses.
The spokeswoman emphasized that the U.K. Parliament oversees the scope of the authority’s regulations and makes final decisions on them.
