- The UK plans to develop a regulatory framework for the crypto industry by early next year, Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq told a conference.
- The rules will apply to stablecoins and staking services and end months of uncertainty for the sector.
The United Kingdom plans to develop a regulatory framework for the crypto industry by early next year, beginning the process just as European Union laws on crypto asset markets (MiCA) come into force across the trading bloc.
“We aim to engage businesses on draft legal provisions for the regime of crypto assets, including stablecoins, as early as possible next year,” Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq said at the tokenization summit on Thursday of City & Financial Global, according to a copy of his speech obtained by CoinDesk. .
The announcement follows months of uncertainty over the government’s plans for the industry following its election. The previous Conservative government had put in place measures to treat crypto as a regulated activity in the Financial Services and Markets Act and said more rules were coming for stablecoins and staking providers.
The new Labor government, elected in July, intends to fully implement its predecessor’s crypto proposals on the creation of regulated activities, including the operation of a crypto trading platform and an abuse regime market, Siddiq said. Under current plans, stablecoins will no longer fall under the UK’s payments regime. There will also be an exclusion for staking to avoid it being treated as a collective investment scheme.
The European Union, the UK’s largest trading partner, has already implemented its crypto regulations. The MiCA rules on stablecoins came into effect at the end of June and the rest will come into force by the end of the year. Among them is the ability for crypto-asset service providers licensed in one member state to operate across the entire 27-country bloc.
Read more: Labor collapse leaves Starmer as UK PM with undeclared crypto plans
UPDATE (November 22, 12:14 UTC): Adds details of the speech throughout, context on the EU and MiCA.
