Crypto-currency regulation talks have taken center stage in the developed world over the past couple of months with countries seeking to gain clarity from their financial regulators on where they stand when it comes to classifying cryptocurrency. In the case of the UK, legal director of British law firm Reynolds porter chamberlain, Jeff Kaufmann, said that the introduction of crypto-currency market regulations in the UK could take two years. RPC is a London based corporate and insurance law firm with offices in Bristol, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and staff amounting to 720 people, including over partners and 330 other lawyers.
Kaufmann believes that the implementation of crypto market regulations in the United Kingdom could take another two years owing to the fact that proposals presented in a recent house of commons meeting were still being discussed. Kaufmann asserted that even brief amendments to the current regulatory regime could take yerars before everything was agreed upon. According to Kaufmann, new regulatiuons could see the increased involvement of the country’sfiancial regulator, the Financial conduct authority (FCA). This is not only causing tension in the cryto community but also raising serious questions as to whether the body has sufficient tools and expertise to regulate the crypto industry.
Kauffmann further ststed that the regulation of crypto currencies will be a steep hill to climb and will also be quite lengthy. According to hi,m there needs to be a healthy balance bewtween protecting retail participants in the crypto market and allowing the Uk crypto currency market to thrive. Kauffman is of the belief that regulations as far as the crypto market is concerned are heavily needed, he said quote “the race to establish a workable and regulated regime for crypto currencies is surely worth winning as their usage becomes more widespread across Europe and globally. The creation of a crypto currency trading hub may also have positive knock-on effects for businesses serving these markets, such as investment banks, brokers and custodians as well as a potential increase in tax revenues for authorities.”
In September, the treasury committee of the house of commons called for a resolution to certain issues revolving around crypto currencies, such as money laundering, poor consumer protection, and risk of hacker attacks. The comitee also urged the FCA to closely monitor crypto currencies, interestingly though, the FCA as is right now does not have the legal capacity to regulate issuers of digital currencies or crypto exchanges.
