FCA’s Crypto Investigation Cases Have Nearly Doubled Since 2018

According to the Financial Times, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which is responsible for the financial landscape of the country has nearly doubled its investigation cases with firms involved in cryptocurrencies over the course of 2018 and 2019 combined.

Data shows that just in 2018 nearly 50 cryptocurrency companies were being investigated by the regulator, and were found to be violating the law in one way or another. Even if they weren’t the sheer volume of investigations from the FCA is already evidence enough that the regulator is not taking the new industry lightly.

Unfortunately, though, there were a lot more scam operations reported in 2018-2019 than the FCA was investigating. For example, there was a total number of $32 Mln lost in crypto/forex scams through around 1,800 reported instances. Comparing that to the 50 that the FCA was investigating, it paints the industry in quite a bad light.

Multiple experts have commented that the FCA is relying on a much more hands-on and no-compromise policy compared to every other regulator in the world. It was also one of the first to ever request customer trading data from registered companies not too long ago. So many compliance violations could be the product of newly released guidelines, which the companies are still adjusting to.

Image courtesy of International Investment