Skip to main content

UK government announces 'robust' crypto regulation as part of economic crime plan

The focus on crypto regulation was part of the U.K. government’s plan to fight economic crime, which also included addressing law enforcement's ability to seize and store assets.

The government of the United Kingdom has laid out plans to step up regulation of crypto assets in its efforts to respond to economic crime in the country.

In a policy paper released on March 30, the U.K. Treasury and Home Office said it planned to “robustly” regulate crypto to fight illicit use of digital assets. The focus on regulation was part of the government’s economic crime plan from 2023 to 2026, which also included pooling “the knowledge and abilities of law enforcement agencies” to review and strengthen how crypto assets involved in legal proceedings may be seized and stored.

“These steps will be in keeping with our ambition to make the U.K. an attractive destination for cryptoassets and cryptoasset innovation in the world,” said the plan. “Challenging as it is, effective cryptoasset regulation benefits everyone, including consumers and firms.”

According to the policy paper, the U.K. government said it expected criminals to shift their crypto transactions to “less regulated exchanges and services” in other jurisdictions. The country’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA — one of the bodies behind enforcement of crypto asset regulation — will be working with its international counterparts to exchange information related to its response on regulation and supervision of crypto.

“The [National Crime Agency]’s National Assessment Centre assesses that based on estimates of UK transaction volumes, illicit cryptoasset transactions linked to the UK in 2021 likely equated to at least £1.24 billion (~1% of total transaction value) with a realistic possibility they were significantly higher.”

As part of its plan of action, the government said it planned to coordinate with various agencies to implement the Financial Action Task Force’s travel rule as well as pass the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. Other goals included improving communications between the FCA and crypto firms in the second quarter of 2024.

Related: UK police council reports there are officers in every unit trained for crypto enforcement

While the U.K. seems to be pursuing a response to crypto on multiple fronts — from law enforcement to regulation — taxpayers in the country face their own reporting obligations. On March 15, the U.K. Treasury released a report announcing it would amend the self-assessment forms for crypto assets starting for the 2024–25 tax year.

Magazine: US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime



from https://ift.tt/nP4MwtR
https://ift.tt/6xHFpey

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Five Bitcoin Price Charts Analyzing The Dramatic Q1 2022 Conclusion

There are only hours remaining until the Q1 2022 close in Bitcoin price action. With the important quarterly candle set to close tonight, let’s look at what technicals might say about the direction of the next quarter. Q1 2022 Comes To A Close For Bitcoin The first quarter of a year, often sets the tone for the year to come. In investments, a poor Q1 performance is indicative of a bad year ahead. Considering the fact that Bitcoin price is now above $45,000 after touching $32,000 this quarter, it is tough to say the performance has been “poor” by anything other than crypto standards. Related Reading | Bitcoin Weekly Momentum Flips Bullish For First Time In 2022 The cryptocurrency has recovered nearly 40% from the low, leaving a long wick behind. Such a long wick suggests that before the quarter came to a close, buyers stepped up in a major way. Buyers were able to step up in a larger capacity in Q1 2022 than bears were able to in the final quarter of last year. The bearish wick to cl...

FTX hacker reportedly transfers a portion of stolen funds to OKX after using Bitcoin mixer

On-chain activity suggests that the hacker has sent at least 225 BTC (4.5 million) to OKX so far. Hackers who drained FTX and FTX USA of over $450 million worth of assets just moments after the doomed crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, continue to move assets around in an attempt to launder the money.  A crypto analyst who goes by ZachXBT on Twitter alleged that the FTX hackers have transferred a portion of the stolen funds to the OKX exchange, after using the Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer. The analyst reported that at least 225 BTC — worth $4.1 million USD — has been sent to OKX so far.  1/ Myself and @bax1337 spent this past weekend looking into the FTX attacker’s deposits to ChipMixer. It appears they’ve likely been transferring a portion of the stolen FTX funds to OKX after withdrawing from CM So far we’ve accounted for at least $4.1m (255 BTC) sent to OKX pic.twitter.com/C46JZWtktn — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 29, 2022 According to ZachXBT, the FTX h...

2 metrics signal the $1T crypto market cap support likely won’t hold

Despite the 8.5% weekly rally in cryptocurrencies, the lack of stablecoin premiums in Asia and futures markets activity shows buyers’ lack of confidence. Cryptocurrencies broke the $1 trillion market capitalization resistance on Oct. 26, which had been holding strong for the previous 41 days. Despite Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) modest 5.5% weekly gains, the aggregate value of 20,000 listed tokens increased by 8.5% between Oct. 24 and 31. Total crypto market cap, USD (in billions). Source: TradingView The cryptocurrency market was positively impacted by a 6.3% weekly rally in the Russell 2000 mid-capitalization stock market index. Some encouraging news accompanied the positive tailwinds from traditional markets. For instance,  55,000 BTC was withdrawn from Binance on Oct. 26, a record high. Typically, analysts consider the reduced number of coins deposited on exchanges a bullish indicator, as the immediate selling pressure eases. Moreover, exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com ...