Summary

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been busy cracking down on crypto firms lately, while the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has been relatively silent.
• The FCA has a list of 51 unregistered firms operating in the country that it has flagged but not yet taken action against.
• James Alleyne, a former FCA official, believes that the regulator has powers under the regulations to take action against these firms.

U.S. Cracking Down on Crypto

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not holding back when it comes to taking action against crypto firms – last Thursday they announced charges against the Kraken exchange for offering unregistered securities products, and according to The Wall Street Journal, they plan to sue crypto issuer Paxos over its BinanceUSD (BUSD) tokens. The SEC also filed suit against Terraform Labs, the issuer of the now-collapsed terraUSD stablecoin; and their ongoing battle with Ripple shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

FCA’s Lack of Action

Despite this flurry of activity from its American counterpart, however, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK has been largely silent – although it does have a list of 51 unregistered companies serving clients in the country that it flagged some time ago but hasn’t taken any action against yet. If these companies want to keep operating in Britain, then they are obligated to register with and comply with all applicable anti-money laundering rules set out by the FCA as well as any other relevant laws or regulations governing financial services businesses in general.

Surprise at Relative Lack of Action

James Alleyne – a legal director at Kingsley Napley who used to work for FCA himself – expressed his surprise at seeing so little movement from them: “I’m quite surprised to see the relative lack of action by the regulator against those firms”, he said referring specifically to those aforementioned unregistered entities still operating in Britain without registering themselves first as required by law; despite having multiple powers under regulation allowing them to do so such as seeking court injunctions or initiating criminal prosecutions if needed be.

Potential for Enforcement Action?

While nothing is certain just yet regarding what kind of enforcement actions might be taken by either body moving forward (if any), one thing is clear: if you’re an unregulated crypto business operating within British borders then you should really consider registering yourself with FCA before it’s too late – especially considering how proactive their American counterparts have shown themselves willing to be lately when dealing with similar issues surrounding digital assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum etc…

< h2 >Conclusion To sum up: both US regulators and their British counterparts have shown themselves willing to act quickly when necessary when dealing with matters related to cryptocurrencies; even though so far most of this activity seems concentrated primarily on American soil – which means unregulated crypto businesses should take steps now while they still can if they want avoid possible future problems down line…