FCA Registration U-Turn Still Leaves Costs for UK Startups
London at sunset.
Updated Dec 17, 2020 at 9:34 p.m. UTC
FCA Registration U-Turn Still Leaves Costs for UK Startups
The U.K. financial services regulator admitted defeat this week in its effort to register all of the country’s crypto-asset firms by Jan. 10, too late for firms that already racked up costs preparing for that deadline while they awaited registration.
Back in January 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that no firm would be allowed to engage in “crypto-asset activity” in the U.K. after Jan. 10, 2021, unless it was registered. But with less than a month until that date, the FCA’s website only lists four registered firms, of which two are subsidiaries of Gemini. Zero new registrations have been processed in the last three months.