UK’s digital minister wants Britain to be a global crypto hub but without crypto criminalization

• The minister gave a cautious note regarding using digital assets for criminal purposes.
• Retail investors in the UK are ineligible to use crypto derivatives.

UK’s digital minister, Chris Philp, has re-emphasized the authorities’ decision to make the country the best crypto hub worldwide. However, he made worrying remarks regarding the possibility of criminals using these digital assets for fraud. Philp made these remarks during a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg radio.

The minister stated;

we want to attract the top crypto players and projects to the UK and London. However, we are also cautious about protecting our citizens. We won’t want these digital assets to be used for purposes that are against the law. For example, illegal financial transactions.

Earlier in April, UK’s Treasury reiterated plans to make Britain one of the top crypto hubs in the world. The announcement was a soothing relief for the crypto space. Many top crypto players claimed that the financial regulator was too strict with its crypto policies.

UK’s Treasury bars retail investors from trading crypto derivatives

UK’s Treasury has been imposing tighter marketing measures for crypto players. One of such measures was the ban on retail investors from trading crypto derivatives. In the last few years, there have been a lot of scams in the crypto space. However, many analysts have blamed authorities for this rising number of scam crypto projects.

They said the lack of proper crypto regulation in the crypto market is the main cause. A US regulator accused Anchorage Digital Bank two months ago of enabling money laundering. The regulator also alleged that the top crypto lender failed to report suspected shady transactions.

Both US and EU have special committees overseeing the crypto space. Their primary objective is to investigate all crypto projects to ensure they are legal. Then, they can also prosecute the illegal ones. Since the start of the year, crypto prices have been declining.

Rising interest rates and the crash of top crypto projects have contributed to this decline. The Terra network crash had a huge negative impact on the crypto market cap. On June 15, Bitcoin’s price traded at nearly sub-$20,000 levels. It is the first time since December 2020 that it would be trading at that price level.

Philp further remarked that the Treasury is working with other regulators in the UK to achieve the objective of making the UK a top crypto hub. The Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority, and the Financial Conduct Authority are the three regulators mentioned by Philp.

London stock exchange is faring better than NASDAQ following equity market pullback – Philp

Philp also spoke about the recent pullbacks in the equity markets. According to him, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is performing better than New York’s NASDAQ.

He said, “during the London Tech week on Monday, I had a chat with some founders and CEOs with listing on the LSE. Many of them told me that the stock price would have dipped lower had it been they listed on NASDAQ and not LSE. So, I believe the LSE is performing better than the NASDAQ under current circumstances.”

The UK’s all-share index is six-fold less than the NASDAQ composite index. However, Britain plans to revamp its policies to make the LSE more competitive. Thus, firms would no longer feel the need to list on NASDAQ.