UK Financial Regulator Opens 300 Crypto Cases That Could Be Scams

The UK Financial regulator opens 300 crypto cases that can turn out to be scams in the past six months as we are reading further in today’s latest cryptocurrency news.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority announced that over the past six months, it opened more than 300 cases that relate to crypto asset businesses. The cases relate to businesses that are not registered with the financial authority as well as potential scams but also an FCA spokesperson said that the businesses have more than one case tied to it.

The watchdog’s announcement added that the regulator has more than 50 live investigations including criminal probes into unauthorized businesses and these investigations don’t really refer to crypto-assets businesses alone. The Executive Director of Markets at the FCA Sarah Pritchard said:

“Consumers need to have confidence when making investment decisions and the data we’ve published today shows how prevalent scams can be. Before investing, check you know who you are really dealing with, check if they are authorized by the FCA, and do your research to understand the risks that might be posed.”

The FCA is the UK’s supervisory authority when it comes to AML and counter-terrorism financing requirements. Back in 2020, the businesses that carry out the crypto-asset activity in the UK were required to become compliant with the Terrorist Financing, money laundering, and transfer of funds regulations but the same businesses have to be registered with the FCA. Despite this, the financial watchdog raised consumer protection concerns as they often pertain to the entire crypto industry.

In January 2021, the FCA shared five concerns around crypto-like price volatility, misleading marketing, and technical complexity. The FCA said:

“Investing in cryptoassets, or investments and lending linked to them, generally involves taking very high risks with investors’ money. If consumers invest in these types of [sic] product, they should be prepared to lose all their money.”

The regulator raised concerns over binance’s lack of headquarters and later it doubled down claiming that binance was not capable of being regulated after failing to provide the UK financial regulator with the basic information about the exchange.