UK Government Accelerate Crypto Adaption To Combat Related Crimes

The UK government outlined plans to accelerate steps to boost crypto regulation in the country as a part of its economic crime plan from 2023 to 2026, Cointelegraph reported.

According to a policy paper, the UK Treasury and Home Office pointed out that it wanted to speed up the crypto regulation to combat the illicit use of digital assets. The plans also include enhancing the knowledge and abilities of law enforcement agencies to check the legal status of the seized and stored crypto assets.

The effective crypto asset regulation will benefit all parties; consumers and firms, the plan said, noting: “These steps will be in keeping with our ambition to make the UK an attractive destination for crypto assets and crypto asset innovation in the world.”

The UK government, in its policy paper, expected that the cybercriminals would head for less regulated exchanges and services to do their illicit crypto transactions. Therefore, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which works as a law enforcement body of crypto asset regulation, will work with its international counterparts to exchange related information.

Based on estimates of UK transaction volumes, illicit crypto asset transactions linked to the UK in 2021 likely equated to at least £1.24 billion ($1.524 billion) (~1% of total transaction value), with a realistic possibility they were significantly higher.

The policy paper also mentioned that the government would pass a law that grants the authorities the ability to target cryptocurrencies used for illicit purposes by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, in addition to bolstering communication between the FCA and crypto firms by the second quarter of 2024.

In March, the UK government decided to scrap its plans to release government-backed NFTs, which are supposed to boost the country’s position in the Web3 space despite the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s bullish position toward the digital collectibles.