Members of the British parliament are in favor of further tightening the regulation of cryptocurrencies, the iNews publication reports.
"This is the Wild West, a gray area between high—leverage financial investments on the one hand and products that can be easily and reasonably recognized as gambling, on the other," said Richard Holden, a member of the Conservative Party. "A clear distinction is needed to protect people."
Assistant to the ex-leader of the Labor Party Matt Zarb-Cousin drew attention to the increase in interest in fan tokens of football clubs:
"It's one thing when football clubs promote betting among fans, because of which people can already ruin their lives, but these tokens are on another level. This is worse than involving people in cryptocurrencies, because they pretend to give them some opportunities in a completely unregulated zone."
Over the past year, the UK authorities have expressed concerns about activity in the cryptocurrency space many times. Similar notices were issued by the Financial Supervision Authority (FCA), including in relation to the unregulated activities of the Binance exchange. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) also had questions for cryptocurrency companies.
According to iNews, parliamentarians intend to include cryptocurrencies in a large-scale review of gambling industry regulation in the coming months, and the FCA expects to receive additional investigative powers. Now the agency can interfere, if only transactions with cryptocurrencies are considered in the context of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.
"Given the insufficient regulatory powers and the highly speculative nature of cryptocurrency investments, we have repeatedly warned people that they should be prepared to lose all their money," the FCA said.