UK Financial Regulator Orders Shut Down Of BTC ATMs

The UK Financial regulator orders shut down on all Bitcoin ATMs in the United Kingdom and it told operators to shut their machines down right away so let’s read more in today’s latest Bitcoin news.

The UK Financial Regulator, UK FCA, told Bitcoin ATMs operators to shut down their machines or will face enforcement action. The FCA also added that crypto ATMs that offer crypto exchange services have to be registered with the FCA and have to comply with the UK Money Laundering Regulations.  The FCA said:

“None of the crypto asset firms registered with us have been approved to offer crypto ATM services, meaning that any of them operating in the UK are doing so illegally and consumers should not be using them.  We are concerned about crypto ATM machines operating in the UK and will therefore be contacting the operators instructing that the machines be shut down or face further action.”

According to Coin ATM Radar, the website tracks crypto ATMs worldwide and a total of 81 crypto ATMs are based in the UK. More than 50 of the machines are located in London, Birmingham coming in second with nine ATMs. On a global scale, the UK makes it into the top 10 countries in the world by crypto ATM could trailing Romania with 124. The US is by far the world’s crypto ATM leader with more than 32,000 active ATMs in place. The FCA’s most recent warning on ATMs is the latest in a series of crackdowns relating to the broader crypto industry.

Back in January, the FCA issued a list of concerns consumers should be aware of when dealing with crypto whcih related to consumer protection, misleading marketing material, and price volatility. The FCA added that if consumers invest in the new types of products, they should be prepared to lose their money. The warning was again reiterated in 2021 by FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi and the FCA also had major concerns over companies in the crypto industry including the biggest one being Binance. The regulator said that it had a huge issue with Binance’s apparent lack of headquarters and back in September it said that binance’s UK entity was not capable of being regulated after failing to provide basic information to the regulator.