Binance.UK is joining the self-regulating industry association CryptoUK as an executive member. The exchange will join stakeholders such as Coinbase, CryptoCompare and Ripple in leading the association’s strategic direction, and working with government policy makers to develop a regulatory framework for digital assets in the United Kingdom. CryptoUK was formed in early 2018 and promotes an active code of conduct for its members. Binance.UK intends to take a proactive role in updating this to ensure that it continues to deliver best practices, input that is welcomed by CryptoUK Chair, Ian Taylor: “Binance.UK will bring significant local and global expertise to …

Cryptocurrency firms in the United Kingdom could soon be faced with more extensive Anti-Money Laundering (AML) reporting requirements. In a consultation paper published this month, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed broadening annual financial crime reporting obligations to include all crypto asset exchange and custodian wallet providers. The regulator says that by extending its reporting rules to a wider range of firms, it will be able to deepen its understanding of which firms may have intrinsic money laundering risks due to their activities. The paper claims that the information provided through more inclusive annual reports will help the FCA’s supervisory approach …

The United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority, has given the go-ahead to Visa’s acquisition of fintech startup Plaid following a Phase 1 review. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the CMA investigated several ways in which the deal could potentially harm competition, but ultimately found no evidence that this outcome was likely. Plaid offers a platform enabling apps to connect to a user's bank accounts. In the U.K. it offers payment initiation services (PIS), which allow direct real-time payments to be made via merchant websites, without use of credit or debit cards. The CMA focused on whether this deal could …

Bitstamp, one of the world’s oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is relocating its European clients from the United Kingdom. Bitstamp is now migrating the accounts of its customers in the U.K. to Bitstamp Europe SA, a business entity based in Luxembourg. An executive at the exchange confirmed the news to Cointelegraph on Aug. 25. Vasja Zupan, COO of Bitstamp, told Cointelegraph that Bitstamp is migrating European clients from its Bitstamp Ltd. entity to the Luxembourg-based entity. According to the executive, Bitstamp has been planning to migrate the clients for months. Zupan highlighted that the account migration “does not involve any …

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has granted operational licenses to two cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country: digital security exchange Archax and the UK branch of the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) website, both Archax and Gemini Europe Services are currently registered in the U.K. as crypto asset firms as of Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, respectively. Both crypto exchanges had to meet compliance requirements in terms of a risk assessment of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) regulations which were mandatory as of Jan. 10. Archax said in an Aug. 19 blog …

The Bank of England will take part in a key meeting tomorrow to discuss central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their possible infrastructural designs. Hosted by global central banking think tank, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), on Aug. 19, the roundtable will involve the BoE’s senior fintech specialist, Simon Scorer, alongside delegates from the Swiss National Bank, ING Nederland and the Hungarian National Bank (Magyar Nemzeti Bank). The CEO of enterprise-focused blockchain platform Cypherium, Sky Guo, will also join the discussion. A key focus of the meeting will be to tackle the ways in which blockchain technology …

Over the past four months, the National Cyber Security Centre, or NCSC, removed over 300,000 URLs pertaining to fake celebrity-endorsed investment opportunities. More than a half of these sites belonged to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes. Per an announcement published by the NCSC on August 14, an increasing number of these scams utilized fake endorsements from national celebrities, such as Ed Sheeran and Richard Branson. This raised red flags for authorities, prompting the launch of a massive retaliatory campaign. Ciaran Martin, CEO of the NCSC, commented: “These investment scams are a striking example of the kind of methods cyber criminals are …

A U.K. woman has been arrested in possession of £115,000 ($150,000) of Bitcoin (BTC), according to a Metropolitan Police report. The cryptocurrency is alleged to be the proceeds of a fraudulent scheme applying for government loans designed to assist small businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The 35-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and child neglect, following the search of a residential address in Ipswich, United Kingdom on Aug 12. Officers successfully applied for the detention of the Bitcoin held in the suspect’s cryptocurrency wallet on Aug 13. The investigation leading to the arrest …

BBC Studios has officially entered the blockchain gaming space after partnering with Reality Gaming Group to develop a digital trading game for the popular TV series, Doctor Who. This marks the first time that the British public service broadcaster has used blockchain technology to market their intellectual property. According to the announcement, BBC Studios granted an exclusive global license to Reality Gaming Group, allowing them to jointly develop a game called “Doctor Who: Worlds Apart.” The product will allow players to collect and trade digital versions of the series’ characters. The game will tokenize each trading card into a non-fungible …

Revolut, a crypto-friendly trading app and one of the biggest fintechs in Europe, reportedly tripled its losses in 2019 despite growth in revenue and new customers. The London-based company reportedly posted a total loss of more than 106 million British pounds ($139 million), up from about 33 million pounds ($43 million) in 2018. Nik Storonsky, founder and CEO at Revolut, outlined that the massive losses in 2019 came despite a significant surge in customers, CNBC reports Aug. 11. “We increased daily active customers by 231% and the number of paying customers grew by 139%,” Storonsky noted. Over the course of …

A resident from Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, was accused by local authorities of attempting to blackmail the supermarket chain, Tesco. According to The Yorkshire Post, Nigel Wright, a sheep farmer, allegedly wrote Tesco a series of letters claiming that he had planted contaminated baby food in their supermarket stores. He then allegedly offered to reveal the locations of the contaminated baby food in exchange for roughly $1.8 million in BTC. Wright is believed to have been a part of a group of disgruntled farmers who felt that the grocery chain had underpaid them for previous goods. No information about other members …

The crypto-enabled investment app eToro is set to launch its debit card in the United Kingdom as it acquired Marq Millions Ltd, a licensed e-money business holding a principal Visa membership. As reported by TechCrunch on July 29, eToro “acqui-hired” Marq Millions Ltd., a U.K.-based e-money provider for an undisclosed sum. The company will now be doing business as eToro Money and will be the direct issuer of eToro’s planned debit card. Marq Millions’ management team will stay on in the eToro Money division. The debit cards, whose launch date is still unknown, will initially be available to eToro Club …