Last week, digital trading app Revolt registered with the UK's top financial regulator, ending the Temporary Registration Scheme (TRR), which allows crypto companies to operate in the country pending full regulatory approval.
Among the remaining five companies, Revolut is the only company to undergo full registration. An FCA spokesperson said crypto companies wishing to operate in the UK must go through a full registration process with the country's top financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.
However, crypto companies are complaining about delays in FCA applications. This delay caused some companies to abandon the process last year.
"If the company can meet the registration conditions, we will register them," the FCA told CoinDesk in an email. "Because it's a two-way street, it takes time to register a company and whether it gets registered depends on the quality of the information we provide. This has been done successfully by 38 companies.
In April, the UK government said it wanted to make the country a global cryptocurrency hub, and new Prime Minister Liz Truss' government reiterated the government's commitment. In the same month, the FCA said it was serious about cryptocurrencies and wanted to proceed with a balanced approach. Since then, he has run several "crypto sprints" to learn about the digital asset industry. But despite the regulator's efforts to support the cryptocurrency industry, only five companies have been registered since April.
Also read : Crypto firms weigh options as UK registration deadline approaches
TRR rules
The TRR regime was established by the FCA in December 2020 and was previously only open to crypto companies operating in the country. There are more than 100 companies on the list, but only 38 of them (including Revolut) are eligible for full registration with the FCA.
While the FCA has set a March 31 deadline for TRR-listed companies to obtain full clearance, some selected companies, such as Revolut, have been allowed to remain listed beyond that date. The FCA did not say why the deadline was extended for some companies, but said companies could appeal or have "special review cases".
As of April 8, five of the 106 listed companies were still in TRR mode. These include CEX.io cryptocurrency exchange, Revolt Digital Bank, GlobalBlock digital asset trading platform, Copper.co digital asset security provider and Moneybrain cryptocurrency wallet and payment platform.
On 30 June, Revolut became the only company remaining on the list and the only company to receive an FCA licence. A further four companies chose to register elsewhere and operate outside the UK.
exit
GlobalBlock was planning to exit TRR mode because the FCA was “not ready” for crypto companies at the time, CEO Rufus Round said in an interview with CoinDesk in April. Round added that the regulator had not approved the application for at least 18 months.
The company sees better opportunities in the European Union, which completed the market with the Cryptocurrency Act (MICA) in September, the report said. In May, GlobalBlock announced the registration of a GlobalBlock Europe subsidiary in Lithuania, a member of the European Union.
Carly Nussbach-Laray, the company's general counsel, told CoinDesk in an email in July that Copper is still in discussions with regulators in regions where the company operates, including the United Kingdom. Lowry said Bronze Branch gained accreditation in Switzerland when it joined the country's Financial Services Standards Association, a self-regulatory body recognized by the Swiss Financial Markets Authority.
CEX rejected the application on May 31, according to Jonathan Wykes, the company's chief executive for UK and Europe. Users located in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom are transferred to a subsidiary of CEX Overseas Limited, British Virgin Islands. to move
Businesses servicing UK consumers are expected to be regulated by the FCA, but the regulator hopes to add cryptocurrencies to its financial promotion rules to prevent unlicensed companies from advertising to UK consumers. .
Moneybrain did not respond to a request for comment.
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