Key Highlights
- 15, 2025 at 3:29 pm UTC Share Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate.
- Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
- The UK Treasury has set October 2027 as the date its full cryptoasset regime comes into force. For the first time, exchanges, custodians and other crypto intermediaries serving UK clients know they will need FCA authorisation under FSMA-style rules to keep doing business, rather than just a money-laundering registration and a risk warning. The reaction to this move has been split across the industry. Freddie New, chief policy officer at Bitcoin Policy UK, called the timeline “nothing short of farcical,” arguing that the UK “hasn't just been left in the dust; it is barely even in the same race” compared with the EU’s already-live MiCA regime and a fast-moving US legislative agenda. On the other side of the table, UK ministers sell the package as overdue housekeeping that brings crypto “inside the perimeter” and applies familiar standards around transparency and governance. Lucy Rigby KC MP, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said:“We want the UK to be at the top of the list for cryptoassets firms looking to grow and these new rules will give firms the clarity and consistency they need to plan for the long term.”However, for UK's crypto market, the signal is less about rhetoric and more about sequencing. A dated perimeter, backed by an FCA consultation that starts to map specific crypto activities into the Handbook, tells firms this is no longer a thought experiment.
- It is a build-out project that has to be budgeted, prioritised and, in some cases, priced into spreads and product decisions. Who falls inside the perimeter?The most important change is not the date but who is caught by the perimeter and for what. In its consultation, the FCA moves beyond the loose language of “exchanges and wallets” and spells out the activities it expects to supervise once the Treasury’s statutory instrument is live. Those include issuing qualifying stablecoins, safeguarding qualifying cryptoassets and certain crypto-linked investments, and operating a cryptoasset trading platform (CATP).
- They also cover dealing as principal or agent, arranging deals in cryptoassets, and offering staking as a service. That list matters because it maps onto how the industry is actually structured.
