The British government has just released documentation informing that the country’s law enforcement agencies will soon have the power to seize crypto assets without going through extensive legal processes.
The country’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which was passed on October 26, 2023, now contains extensive provisions regarding crypto assets, including how authorities can investigate, seize or deal with them in criminal situations.
The law also allows UK authorities to seize crypto or a certain fiat value from exchanges or ‘crypto asset service providers’.
The document says,
“A magistrates court can order the UK-linked crypto asset service provider, which manages the crypto wallet holding the crypto assets –
(a) to realize the crypto assets, or part of the crypto assets of a certain value,
(b) pay the proceeds of such realization to the designated officer of the court in accordance with, and up to a maximum of, the amount payable under the confiscation order, and
(c) to the extent that the proceeds of realization exceed the amount payable under the confiscation order, to pay the excess to an authorized officer specified in the order.”
According to a new document, the provisions will come into effect on April 26.
Plans for new rules and regulations for deploying stablecoins and cryptocurrency in Britain are in the pipeline, according to recent reports.
A Bloomberg report quotes Economic Finance Minister Bim Afolami saying at an event hosted by crypto exchange Coinbase in London that the British government was “pushing very hard” to make the necessary regulations a reality.
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Featured image: Shutterstock/agsandrew
