British officials at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) discussed their agency’s work on crypto regulation with the House of Commons Treasury Committee on Wednesday.
At the meeting, organisational chair Ashley Alder said the FCA was halfway “through a quite ambitious reset” amid the nation’s Financial Services and Markets Bill.
The legislation is currently under review in Parliament.
Both Alder and chief executive of the company, Nikhil Rathi, addressed inquiries on numerous financial topics at the Committee hearing.
In a letter to the Committee, former FCA chair Charles Randell wrote: “speculative crypto is gambling pure and simple and it should be regulated and taxed as such.”
Alder responded that “this is not going to be looked at from a regulatory perspective other than by financial regulators,” adding financial regulation “needs to be appropriately tough.”
The news comes as the Bill moves through Westminster, allowing the FCA to regulate the cryptocurrency industry without eliminating crypto risks.
Rathi added: “We are not going to be able to put in place a framework that protects consumers from losses,” adding that UK cryptocurrency holders only owned no more than “several hundred pounds.”
The news comes as the United Kingdom drafted a framework to explore using Web3 technologies, including cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance (DeFi), and others.
