BitPanda, a Viena-based crypto exchange platform has made its maiden acquisition in the form of United Kingdom-based Trustology, a crypto custodian and wallet service provider for an undisclosed amount. BitPanda will rebrand the newly acquired fintech firm to BitPanda custody in a bid to start its native crypto custody services focused on institutional investors. The firm plans to begin its newly announced crypto custody services by taking custody of all its assets across its retail and institutional businesses. The firm claimed it would become the largest crypto custodian by doing so. The crypto platform’s first-ever acquisition comes after a series …

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the top financial authority in the United Kingdom, has raised concerns over Binance’s recent partnership with Paysafe, a retail payment processor. The U.K. financial watchdog said the latest partnership of Binance gives it access to the extensive retail payment network via Faster Payment Services (FPS), a critical service that was discontinued for the crypto exchange citing regulatory concerns. FCA had ordered Binance to halt all its services in June. Prominent banks like Barclays have withdrawn their support to the exchange, resulting in the suspension of banking services. Binance managed to facilitate its consumers with Sterling …

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the U.K.’s tax agency, on Wednesday, has released a controversial set of guidance that could affect innovation in Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The updated regulation focuses on the treatment of digital assets specifically for DeFi lending and staking in the UK, and whether returns or rewards from these services are deemed as capital or revenue for taxation purposes. Owing to the cutting edge nature of DeFi these services had fallen into a grey area with tax professionals unsure of how the existing rules apply. “The lending/staking of tokens through decentralized finance (DeFi) is a constantly …

Over the last week, regulators in three major jurisdictions across two continents introduced new rules governing cryptocurrency-related promotions and advertisements. Citing consumer risks associated with digital asset investments, authorities in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Spain tightened the requirements around crypto firms’ marketing messaging and customer recruitment practices. While some experts view this emerging trend as a sign of a new global phase of cryptocurrency regulation, questions about the efficiency and universal applicability of this approach persist. New measures In the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Treasury issued a report summarizing the results of a public consultation on crypto-asset promotions, published …

The former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and current U.K. Member of Parliament (MP) Matt Hancock urged the House of Commons to make England the “home” of crypto. Hancock has served as an MP for West Suffolk since 2010 but stood down from his role as the Health Secretary in mid-2021 following controversy surrounding COVID breaches tied to an alleged extramarital affair. Which is to say his endorsement, while welcomed by the industry, may not hold as much cachet as it once did. Following up from his speech at the House of Commons on Jan. 27, Hancock …

Last week, two central banks dropped public reports that can have a sizable impact on the crypto landscape in their respective countries and beyond. The U.S. Federal Reserve published a discussion paper entitled “Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation,” which summarizes years of the Fed’s research on CBDCs. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Russia released a report that called for a blanket ban on domestic cryptocurrency operations and mining. Both documents are framed as an invitation for public discussion, but the kinds of discussions that they will trigger are likely to be very different. …

The United Kingdom is actively looking to regulate the crypto market and has proposed many new policies to bring various crypto markets under the rule of law. However, among the various newly proposed suggestions, what turned many heads is the request to remove blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) references from the definition of crypto assets. BRITAIN SETS OUT PLANS FOR REGULATING CRYPTO ASSETS, PROPOSES TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO BLOCKCHAIN FROM THE DEFINITION OF CRYPTO ASSETS — *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) January 18, 2022 A new crypto report titled “Cryptoasset promotions: Consultation response” from the Her Majesty’s (HM) Treasury noted that, …

As Alex Tapscott put it, 2021 was the year when many governments and lawmakers began to finally wake up to the transformational potential of blockchain technology. Indeed, crypto’s global mainstreaming and growing market capitalization have made it difficult for the agents of power to ignore it and have rendered it a salient economic, social and political issue across many key jurisdictions. By all appearances, we are in for a busy year in crypto regulation and policymaking. Stablecoins, an asset class that attracted a fair amount of regulatory attention in 2021, will surely remain in the hot seat this year. For …

Lisa Cameron, a member of parliament for the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, is reportedly chairing a lobbying group aimed at promoting crypto-related legislation in government. According to a Friday report from the Financial Times, members of parliament as well as members of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom launched the Crypto and Digital Assets Group to ensure rules for the crypto industry in the U.K. “support innovation” as of last week. The cross-party group aims to protect investors from financial crimes, including token scams or offerings from regulated companies. “We are at a crucial time for the …

On Wednesday, Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, issued the following statement to the Treasury Committee when asked about the risks of the much-unregulated cryptocurrency sector in the country: When we talk about the compensation scheme, we have to draw some pretty clear lines. I would suggest anything is crypto-related should not be entitled to compensations, and consumers should be clear about that when investing. In the passage, Rathi refers to the FCA's Financial Services Compensation Scheme, or FSCS, which pays out compensation to consumers when certain authorized financial institutions cannot meet claims against …

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the exchange is planning to expand to the U.K. in the next six to 18 months, despite being instructed by the country’s regulator to cease trading earlier this year. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revoked Binance’s ability to trade in Britain in June, amid a sweeping regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges. Binance is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. To become a registered crypto asset firm in the U.K., the platform must abide by money laundering and terrorist financing controls. To meet these requirements, Zhao indicated the company was considering setting up a …

Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said the risks of a growing crypto market on the financial system are “relatively limited” at the moment but have the potential to grow very rapidly if regulators do not keep pace. In a speech to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) on Oct. 13, Cunliffe said policymakers around the world have only just started to develop the framework needed to properly regulate digital assets but should pursue it “as a matter of urgency.” The deputy governor spoke about the risks that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins may …