❓ What does the £3.5mn fine slapped on Coinbase mean for the UK crypto industry?
💰 The penalty, for rule breaches that allowed high-risk customers to carry out transactions worth $226mn, is the first to be handed down by the Financial Conduct Authority to a firm handling payments used in crypto trading.
🇺🇸 US watchdogs, on the other hand, concerned that criminals use crypto markets for money-laundering and financing terrorism, have aggressively chased firms operating in the sector over the past few years.
🗞 The FCA said Coinbase's crypto exchange subsidiary CB Payments Ltd had provided payment services to more than 13,000 “high-risk” customers. This included notable figures on sanctions lists, politically exposed people and individuals who declared themselves unemployed.
🇬🇧 The UK sector is seeking regulatory clarity from the new Labour administration, which has placed financial services at the heart of its ‘dash-for-growth’ strategy. Banking Risk and Regulation asked experts what other crypto asset firms can do to avoid the severe enforcement action meted out to CBPL.
🔎 Kate Gee, a crypto lawyer at Signature Litigation, says other crypto firms should see the FCA’s actions as a “stark warning”.
👀 “Crypto firms that want to remain active in the UK and provide services to UK clients must be prepared and willing to comply with regulatory requirements, and to face the accompanying scrutiny from the regulator."
Story by John Crowley. Read more below👇
https://lnkd.in/ekdvuqSj
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