A survey on investors across the United Kingdom has revealed a growing interest in the new asset classes that threaten to overshadow traditional finance — driven by factors such as ease of access and an adolescent crypto market. Among the 2000 UK residents that were surveyed by OnePoll via Tokenise, 81% of the responders chose tokens as the safer and more secure alternative to traditional investments such as gold, oil, shares and real estate: “Driven by a difficult climate for traditional investment vehicles due to the pandemic, low-interest rates and inflation, the time is right for tokens to take center …

United Kingdom's national crime agency (NCA) seeks to regulate the crypto coin mixers under the country's laws against money laundering. Coin mixing tools are popular in the decentralized world to maintain the privacy of transactions. These tools often mix several transactions to obscure the origin of a particular transaction. Then the recipient receives the transactions from a mixing "black box" that comprises hundreds of transactions from various wallets. While privacy-focused, these tools often face regulators' ire as it is also a known way for hackers and criminals to wash their funds. Gary Cathcart, the NCA's head of financial investigation, claimed …

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking senior executives with cryptocurrency-related expertise as the regulator is preparing to launch a new crypto department to regulate the industry. According to FCA’s job postings on LinkedIn, the authority is now hunting for a head of the digital assets department and a director of the payments and digital assets department. Both job postings target the crypto savvy. Published on Monday on LinkedIn, FCA’s head of digital asset job posting targets a candidate who will be accountable for leading the authority’s approach to regulatory operations within the crypto industry across the United …

Rising prices are grabbing headlines all over the world. Across the pond in the United States, inflation recently broke a 40-year record. The situation is severe in Europe, with prices rising over 5% across the Eurozone and 4.9% in the United Kingdom. While prices rise, Bitcoin (BTC) is flatlining at around $39,000. It poses many questions: Is Bitcoin an effective hedge against rising prices, what role can Bitcoin play in a high inflation environment and did Bitcoiners know that inflation was coming? Experts from the world of Bitcoin, finance and even European politics responded to these questions, sharing their views …

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, has issued a warning to Binance Markets in response to Binance’s payment company Bifinity and investment firm Eqonex entering a strategic partnership. In a Monday statement, the FCA reiterated that Binance Markets Limited was not allowed to conduct certain regulated crypto-related activities in the U.K. without prior consent due to previous concerns about the company being incapable of “being effectively supervised,” claiming some of its products posed “a significant risk” to investors. The financial watchdog hinted Bifinity’s recent announcement that it had partnered with Eqonex may be a cause of concern for …

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, has announced it has 50 active investigations as part of its efforts to crack down on unregistered crypto businesses. In a Thursday announcement, the FCA said it had opened more than 300 cases into unregistered crypto firms in the last six months “many of which may be scams.” In addition, the country’s financial watchdog said it was conducting 50 active investigations — which may include criminal probes — into authorized crypto businesses. According to the FCA, U.K. residents sent in 16,400 inquiries between April and September 2021 which included crypto-related scams. The …

Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume is returning to the Malaysian markets with a strategic stake in the country’s regulated digital asset trading platfrom MX Global. Binance and Cuscapi Berhad acquired a key stake in MX Global, one of the four Recognized Market Operators - Digital Asset Exchange licensed by the Securities Commission (SC) in Malaysia. Hello Malaysia. https://t.co/vsHzHlm7KI — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) March 1, 2022 The leading crypto exchange has a significant presence in the Asian region and with its new partnership in Malaysia, the exchange aims to expand the sustainable growth of the crypto market …

A European subsidiary of United States-based crypto trading platform Uphold has received approval from the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). According to the FCA website, Uphold’s U.K. subsidiary Uphold Europe Limited gained regulatory approval on Feb. 17, 2022, joining the select list of 32 firms that have received FCA approval as a Registered Crypto Asset service provider, out of the 200 that applied. The approval signifies that the firm is in compliance with the U.K. Anti-Money Laundering and CounTerrorist Financing regulations. In order for crypto exchanges and service providers to offer their services to U.K.-based customers, they must register …

“DAOs are very powerful token-based coordination mechanism that any person now can wield outside of the legacy financial system”, said Silke Noa, core-member of the AssangeDAO, which recently raised $53 million in support of Wikileak's founder, Julian Assange. According to Noa, the fundraising campaign was "a huge success" that showed how the power of a DAO can have an impact on political and social issues. The DAO mechanism allowed anyone willing to support Assange's to make a donation in ETH and become a member of the organization. In exchange, AssangeDAO members received a proportional amount of governance tokens, JUSTICE, which …

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 …

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the chief tax authority in the United Kingdom, have seized three nonfungible tokens (NFTs) associated with a suspected tax evasion fraud. The tax watchdog claimed it was the first U.K. law enforcement agency to seize NFT. The NFT seizure came along with the arrest of three people who are suspected of evading taxes using various sophisticated means, reported BBC. The arrested suspects in the case reportedly used fake identities and created 250 fake ‘shell’ companies to evade £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in value-added taxes (VAT). HMRC obtained a court order to confiscate $6,765 (£5,000) worth …

It’s been just 13 years since Bitcoin’s (BTC) “Mayflower moment,” when a tiny handful of intrepid travelers chose to turn their back on the Fiat Empire and strike out to a new land of financial self-sovereignty. But, whereas it took 150 years for the American colonists to grow sufficient in number to throw off the yoke of unrepresentative government, the Republic of Bitcoin has gone from Pilgrims to Revolutionary Army in little over a decade. What sort of people are these new Bitcoiners? How do their character, demographics and technical knowledge differ from earlier adopters? Is “Generation Bitcoin” sufficiently prepared …