- British cryptography companies are preparing for new rules.
- Crypto UK Group explains to DL News why it will help industry.
- Crypto has long tried to balance confidentiality and clarity.
In a decision that contrasts with a meticulous examination in the United States, Great Britain increases reporting requirements for cryptographic companies.
The HMRC, the United Kingdom’s tax authority, will be implemented new rules on January 1 and direct cryptocurrency companies to report personal user information – such as the name, date of birth and reception address – to the authorities for each profession carried out.
The torsion? The British cryptography industry agrees with this.
“If you did not expect you to be in this position to reach these levels of conformity and operate in these frames – where were you in recent years?” said Su Carpenter, executive director of Cryptouk, the commercial association of industry which represents some 150 players in the cryptographic market.
Legal uncertainty
In an exclusive interview with DL NewsCarpenter said the British government finally gives industry what it wanted for years – regulatory clarity.
By governing the blockchain ventures in the same way as other financial companies, the industry considers that it can finally erase the legal uncertainties that have followed its operations.
For years, the Crypto Lobby complained that an absence of cryptographic laws embraced regulators, such as the Financial Conduct Authority, more difficult than they should be.
A similar argument was advanced in the United States to explain the repression of the Crypto of Securities and Exchange Commission under former president Gary Gensler.
In response, companies like Binance and Paypal suspended their cryptography services in the United Kingdom.
“It was really very detrimental to the United Kingdom because the companies that were going to invest have chosen not to do so,” said Carpenter.
“Best place in the world”
This can be about to change. The new rules of tax authority are part of it.
The government also unveiled a crypto bill in April on which it requests comments on. Likewise, the FCA called for comments on its own crypto police on May 28.
“We make Great Britain the best place in the world to innovate – and the safest place for consumers,” said Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the chessboard in April.
“Robust rules concerning crypto will strengthen the confidence of investors, will support the growth of fintechs and protect people through the United Kingdom.”
Yes, this means more checking of the history to prevent financial crimes, and higher compliance costs are on the horizon.
Conformity first
But this is the price that industry and customers have to pay to play, argued Carpenter.
“If you do not first think of compliance, then you are probably not the right type of business to succeed in the long term in this industry,” she said.
Fintech Foyer
The United Kingdom has long supported Fintech startups.
Revolut, the Neobank which offered an exchange of crypto for years, is now worth $ 45 billion. Etoro, an Israeli online trading platform which was the pioneer of retail crypto investment, became a public on the Nasdaq earlier in May.
Konstantinos Adamos, the best lawyer for revolut cryptography, also praised renewed regulatory efforts.
“The UK regime will bring certainty, clarity and create a level playground,” said Adamos DL News Earlier in May. “It’s a positive net.”
Anonymity first
Carpenter’s comments mark a dramatic change for an industry that has put confidentiality to its heart since Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym developer behind Bitcoin, launched the cryptocurrency industry in 2008.
Indeed, anonymity is a rallying cry for crypto enthusiasts worried about the growing threat of abduction of the founders, attacks on influencers and cyber attacks such as the recent Hack Coinbase, which has compromised a little less than 70,000 personal data from users.
The fears are reviewing that criminals can access information on cryptography holders via public files, or via data stored by companies that comply with your customer’s knowledge rules.
Know-you-Customer Checks, or KYC, is a process that many companies are legally required to perform to check the identities of customers and prevent money laundering and other crimes.
While Carpenter said that she understood an apprehension of crypto enthusiasts, she said that Cryptouk was “100% behind” a strong reasonable diligence and KYC to protect businesses and consumers.
“If you are an honest person and you are dealing with an open, honest and compliant business, why is there a concern by wanting to provide these details?” She said.
British cryptography rules
In 2022, the Minister of the time, Rishi Sunak, undertook to transform the United Kingdom into a home for digital assets.
His conservative government has positioned itself as an ally of the industry and urged regulators not to undermine cryptographic companies by too strictly stifling the rules of innovation and application.
Last year, cryptographic laws were at dawn to become a reality. These efforts stalled when Sunak called and lost an election at a wink.
At the end of 2024, his successor, Keir Starmer, undertook to renew these efforts after Donald Trump was elected president in the United States with the strong support of the cryptographic industry.
Trump has not lost time to soften a meticulous examination of the industry and pursue several cryptographic companies with his family.
The dry in the United States has abandoned or suspended practically all measures to apply the law which it took against Coinbase, Ripple, as well as individuals such as Crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
Starmer’s Labor Government took note, not necessarily in the way it approached Crypto, but in terms of really paying attention, said Carpenter.
“The government here could no longer ignore it,” she said.
But few things happened. In April, the cryptography industry got tired of waiting even though the American market became more dynamic, and the EU advanced, with its radical crypto-active, or mica, Law markets.
Industry leaders have called on the British government to act. “The United Kingdom has been delayed from other major jurisdictions,” complained Matthew Osborne, director of Ripple policies, complained in April.
Now, it seems that industry is ready to get what it wants for so long, Westminster going ahead with laws and regulators requesting comments on regulations.
“We are back on the right track,” said Carpenter.
Eric Johansson is the editor -in -chief of DL News. Do you have a tip? Email to eric@dlnews.com.
