The previous head of the U.K.’s department for business, energy, and industrial strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been named the new finance minister by Britain’s incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss, and has been tasked with making choices that will affect the British and international crypto markets.
Prior to his resignation in July, the former finance minister Rishi Sunak had advocated for crypto asset technologies and had indicated aspirations to promote the nation as a “global powerhouse for crypto asset technology.” It is yet unknown how much Kwarteng agrees with Sunak’s opinion on the digital assets.
The incoming prime minister of the United Kingdom hasn’t spoken much about cryptocurrencies, but in 2018, when Truss was chief secretary to the Treasury, he tweeted: “We should welcome cryptocurrencies in a way that doesn’t confine their potential.”
Kwarteng, the incoming Chancellor of the Exchequer and a son of Ghanaian immigrants, will have his hands full managing an economy experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years and one that many analysts think could see a recession later this year.
Blockchain solutions were noted as a component of the technical innovation required to improve the British economy in the future in a 2021 study from Kwarteng’s former department.
A 61.3 million dollar (US) fund was announced in July by the department of business, energy, and industrial strategy, which is led by Kwarteng, to enhance competitiveness through digital technology, particularly the use of blockchain technologies in supply chains.
