By July, the United Kingdom Treasury plans to provide a regulatory framework for stablecoins and crypto assets to promote innovation in blockchain technology and digital assets.
Speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) 2024, Bim Afolami, economic secretary to the Treasury of the United Kingdom, disclosed the government’s continuous efforts to establish a foundation for reforming the nation’s payments infrastructure.
Parallel to the United Kingdom’s emphasis on innovation in fiat payment systems, Afolami emphasized the criticality of crypto regulations for maintaining global competitiveness:
“Speaking of true change, I know that the cornerstone of our position as a world leader in fintech is the delivery of our regulatory regime for crypto assets and stablecoins.”
Afolami additionally emphasized the British government’s stance regarding regulations, which seeks to strike a harmonious equilibrium between safeguarding consumers and enabling firms to innovate.
The U.K. Treasury intends to deliver the final proposals, which “deal with stablecoin and (crypto) staking,” between June and July. Minister of State:
“Once it goes live, a whole host of crypto asset activities, including operating in exchange, taking custody of customer assets and other things, will come within the regulator perimeter for the first time.”
Afolami additionally declared the establishment of an open finance task force throughout the conference.
He elaborated, “The task force will identify the data sets of commercial incentives required to advance CFIT’s SME lending use case for open finance and produce a clear set of recommendations.”
U.K. authorities can directly retrieve crypto assets from exchanges and custodial wallet providers beginning on April 26.
The legislation is operational after modifying the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. This amendment grants the National Crime Agency an expanded authority to confiscate and seize crypto assets that it suspects may be associated with dubious illicit activities, bypassing the need for protracted legal proceedings.
The most prevalent method for destroying a cryptocurrency token is burning it, transferring the tokens to a burn wallet address, and removing them from circulation.
