It’s not just US regulators intent on cleaning up the blockchain industry. In the UK, financial watchdogs are closing in on more dodgy cryptocurrency businesses than ever before.
In fact, since May, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has lodged 26 inquiries with firms it suspected to be operating within financial services sector without permission, reports the Telegraph.
Freedom of Information requests revealed the number of FCA investigations into cryptocurrency businesses has doubled this year, already reaching 50.
Industry insiders are doing their part as well – whistleblowers from blockchain firms have made themselves heard for the first time in years.
The FCA said it has fielded seven cryptocurrency-related whistleblowing reports from concerned employees in 2018, after receiving none in the previous three years. Although, it appears it no whistleblowers have come forward since May.
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Despite recent efforts, the UK’s Treasury Committee published a scathing review of the FCA’s attempts to regulate the digital asset market.
A parliamentary report from last month declared the FCA’s ambiguous stance is leaving UK citizens open to being swindled by cryptocurrency scams.
In particular, the Committee claimed the FCA has insufficiently handled the fraudulent businesses who spread “misleading adverts” for their initial coin offerings (ICOs), and even made claims that its current efforts are too unsustainable to make a real impact.
Across the pond, the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) handing out crypto-punishment left and right. It recently closed down seminal ‘decentralized’ trading platform EtherDelta for exchanging securities without a license.
It also distributed mega-fines to two separate cryptocurrency businesses for launching ICOs without registering with the appropriate financial authorities.
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