Editor’s Comment: A dangerous crypto game for FCA

Yes I know a few people have made a few quid – mostly through getting some very risky bets right – but most have not and they are usually the quiet ones.

It’s not a stable investment on which to make future plans.

Whenever I declare my views on crypto in conversation to crypto fans, and I’ve met a few, I am usually met with cries of ‘but you don’t understand it.’

I profess to not being a crypto expert but I know perhaps more than many and I wouldn’t touch any cryptoassets with a bargepole. 

With this in mind, sadly the FCA has got out its regulatory bargepole out and is preparing to ‘touch’ cryptoassets with a new regulatory regime focused on their marketing from 8 October.

This will ban some of the excessive incentives to buy cryptoasset products and introduce a 24 hour cooling off period on sales among other ‘brakes’ on a feverish market.

The aim is to bring order where little exists.

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I’m not so sure this is a wise idea as it may be seen as a validation of cryptoassets but I understand why the FCA is trying to regulate what is effectively a computer-generated currency with no inherent value.

FCA execs must have wrestled with the crypto issue for some time before ultimately deciding it was better to get into bed with devil you know rather than leave the devil outside to cause mischief.

I applaud the FCA for having the guts to take what must have been a very difficult decision to push ahead with cryptoasset marketing regulation but the risks must be huge and I wonder if the decision may one day haunt them.

One example is the threat under the new regulations to take action against cryptoasset firms based overseas which target UK investors but break the rules. These firms face retribution and punishment says the FCA. I suspect this will be far easier said than done. It may even nudge crypto firms towards moving overseas to poorly regulated jurisdictions just to avoid FCA attention. It’s what many unauthorised and unregulated investment firms already do.

So is the regulatory regime a step forward? I think time will tell on this one but the new regime will at least allow the FCA make its warnings even stronger and give it some powers to pursue rogue firms.

I suspect, this new regime will be a case of ‘whackamole’ but if it at least brings some order to a disorderly part of the market it will be progress.

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Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days. Follow @FPT_Kevin 

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