Slow Crypto Development Could Leave the UK Government Behind
Former chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond has issued a warning that the UK may not be able to achieve its goal of being an important global hub for cryptocurrency in the future unless it makes some significant measures in the very near future.
The UK’s upper echelons of government, banks, and regulatory agencies have widely divergent views on cryptocurrencies, which makes it very challenging for the nation to advance and establish itself as a welcoming haven for cryptocurrencies.
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, believes that cryptocurrencies have no fundamental worth, despite plans revealed by Rishi Sunak, the current chancellor of the exchequer, to make the UK a centre for crypto-assets.
When you consider that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the top financial regulatory body in the UK, has published investor warnings that the proposal offers them no financial protection and that they could lose all of their money, you realize that the UK’s top financial bodies are most definitely not on board with Sunak’s proposal.
Adoption
In an earlier today Bloomberg interview, Philip Hammond, a senior advisor to London-based cryptocurrency custodian and training services firm Copper.co, claimed that the UK has always been very quick to adopt new technology and that it had wisely leveraged its regulators to outpace its rivals.
The ex-chancellor bemoaned the fact that most other jurisdictions were “running ahead of us” and that even the European Union would surpass the UK in terms of developing technology policy once it implemented regulations for the markets for digital assets.
According to him, the absence of regulation in the cryptocurrency industry is what’s hurting the industry’s reputation.
“The issue is that there are no rules and everyone is unsure of their status. It has a somewhat tarnished reputation, especially among the public and policymakers, and is somewhat Wild West-like.
According to Hammond, at the present everything revolves on bitcoin, but in roughly 3 years it will be all about tokenized stocks and bonds that can be exchanged quickly and safely. He continued by saying that the jurisdictions who got this right would wind up becoming the new trading hubs for digital assets.
