Since January 2020, 291 crypto companies have applied for registration with the principal financial regulator of the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Only 13% of them successfully obtained a permit to operate in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Aug11, the FCA published a response to a right-to-know request, whose author remains unnamed. The request considered four questions about the registration statistics of crypto asset businesses. <\/p>\n
The regulator revealed that since 2020 it has received 291 applications for registration and approved only 38 of them. Most applications (155) were withdrawn by the firms themselves, as the FCA encourages them to resubmit applications later if not all the criteria have been met. The FCA stated:<\/p>\n
\u201cFirms are required to provide the minimum information set out under regulation 57 of the MLRs, any firm that has not provided the required information will have their application rejected.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the U.K., firms permitted to \u201ccarry out crypto asset activities\u201d must either be registered with the FCA or have been granted temporary operating status. Previously, the FCA ordered Binance Markets Limited to halt its operations in the country and issued \u201cshut down or face further action\u201c orders for local crypto ATM operators. At the time of publication, the FCA\u2019s list of registered crypto asset providers includes 42 entities, such as Skrill, eToro and Gemini.\u00a0<\/p>\n