The FCA's enforcement action targeted unregistered peer-to-peer crypto traders, emphasizing that these operations are illegal and pose significant financial crime risks. Steve Smart stated, 'We will use our powers and work with partners to disrupt them.'
His unlikely day trip aimed to highlight the City watchdog's role in opening the way to a doubling of the size of the mutuals sector a Labour manifesto pledge. Among these customer- or worker-owned organisations, including huge companies such as John Lewis and Nationwide building society, are the 350 credit unions. These are locally based lenders whose interest rates are capped by law and whose clients tend to include the low-income consumers left behind by the big banks.
Starting today, firms can offer retail investors exposure to bitcoin and other cryptoassets through ETNs traded on FCA-approved investment exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange or Cboe UK. The change came into effect today after months of consultation and signals a more open - though still cautious - regulatory stance toward crypto. "Since we restricted retail access to cETNs, the market has evolved, and products have become more mainstream and better understood," said David Geale, executive director of payments and digital finance at the FCA.
Robinhood Markets Inc. is exploring an expansion of its prediction markets product to countries outside of the US, a move that would broaden the reach of the already fast-growing and often controversial industry. The brokerage has been speaking to overseas regulators like the UK's Financial Conduct Authority about how it might offer prediction markets locally, as demand for the space continues to grow.
