Followers of the crypto industry with an interest in the UK may recall positive messages emanating from the British authorities throughout 2023. According to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaking at a London launch event for the heavily crypto-invested VC firm Andreesen Horowitz earlier this year, his intent was to “turn the UK into the world’s Web3 center”.
This came around a year after the British Government–while Sunak was still Chancellor of the Exchequer–published plans “to make Britain a global hub for cryptoasset technology and investment.”
What’s more, the Bank of England recently published lengthy regulatory proposals aimed at safely enabling “systemic payment systems using stablecoins and related service providers”, and stating that, “stablecoins have the potential to be used by many people in the UK for everyday payments. Regulation lays the groundwork for safe and sustainable innovation in money and payments.”
Total Stablecoin Supply
Two Very Different Stories
With senior politicians on board and the Bank of England recognizing the disruptive shifts enabled by distributed ledgers, a sense of directional momentum was emerging. Furthermore, these developments boosted the likelihood of the UK competing effectively alongside the EU and its new, continent-wide regulatory framework for the crypto industry, MiCA. However, while all this has been playing out, some actual crypto users in the UK may have been experiencing a different story.
For those in Britain who interact with crypto via centralized platforms, and for whom on and off ramps between crypto and fiat currency are vitally important, it’s been a year of narrowing options, with some services halted at major firms including PayPal, Luno, Bybit and KuCoin. And now, following along with this trend, comes news that digital bank Revolut will be pausing some of its crypto services in the UK.
What’s Happened at Revolut?
According to an email sent by Revolut to its Business customers, the popular banking platform will be temporarily pausing the ability of its UK-based Revolut Business customers to buy crypto, with these changes effective as of January 3rd 2024. Holding and selling crypto will still be allowed, and the changes do not affect Revolut Retail customers, who are still able to buy, sell and hold as usual.
As for why this is necessary, Revolut states that it’s due to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s new regulatory requirements for crypto…
