TL;DR
- The FCA, HMRC and Metropolitan Police inspected three London premises over suspected illegal crypto trading.
- Cease-and-desist notices were issued.
- The action involved unregistered P2P businesses, not licensed UK exchanges.
The Financial Conduct Authority has stepped up its enforcement work against illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading in London.
Working with HMRC and the Metropolitan Police, the regulator inspected three commercial premises suspected of operating unregistered crypto businesses.
The action took place on September 10, with the FCA publishing details on September 17.
Teams issued cease-and-desist notices and gathered intelligence from the businesses involved.
This Was About Unregistered Trading
The distinction matters because the UK is in the middle of a much wider overhaul of crypto regulation.
The FCA’s new authorisation gateway opens at the end of September, but firms already face rules around anti-money-laundering registration and financial promotions.
Physical or P2P businesses that operate outside that framework remain enforcement targets.
The latest action appears aimed squarely at that part of the market.
It is not evidence that the FCA is suddenly targeting licensed exchanges or shutting down mainstream crypto trading.
Enforcement And Authorisation Are Moving Together
The timing is interesting.
On one side, the FCA is creating a clearer route for crypto firms that want to operate under the incoming regulatory regime.
On the other, it is increasing pressure on businesses operating outside the rules.
Those two things go together.
A licensing system only means much if companies that ignore it face consequences.
For legitimate firms, that can eventually be helpful.
Clear rules are expensive to comply with, but they are even harder to justify if competitors can simply ignore them.
The FCA’s message is becoming fairly straightforward.
The UK wants crypto businesses.
It also increasingly expects them to behave like regulated financial businesses.
Source: Financial Conduct Authority. https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-and-partners-continues-crackdown-illegal-crypto-trading
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.