UK Lawmakers Signal Crypto Regulation

On the 25th October, the UK House of Commons voted to recognise cryptocurrency as a regulated financial instrument. This is the latest development for crypto in the UK, where all signs point to the government positioning the country to be a cryptocurrency hub and looking to encourage the development of crypto, digital assets and blockchain in a safe and secure environment. If the House of Lords approves the bill then it will pass into law.

This declaration from the House of Commons shows that the intent of British lawmakers is to place cryptocurrencies under the purview of regulators, creating a safe ecosystem for digital currency to flourish. This is a positive sign for the crypto community as an increase in regulation gives the potential for digital assets to be adopted by a wider audience and used across various regulated industries.  

Seemingly reacting to the news in a positive manner, bitcoin and other crypto have seen a significant jump in price over the past couple of days, with bitcoin notably increasing from around $19300 to $20800 in little more than a day. Whilst crypto prices often fluctuate, this is the strongest position most cryptocurrencies have been in over the past month. 

Though this is good news for the health of both crypto and blockchain ecosystems, the fact that it will be regulated does mean that companies will need to abide by new regulatory measures or else face the consequences. This will require businesses to implement compliance measures, which traditionally mean:

• Increased costs as identity checks are outsourced to verifiers.
• Delays with onboarding new customers due to the necessary checks. 
• Frustration to customers wanting to use services as they are required to repeatedly submit the same information and wait for approval - particularly in the crypto scene where opportunities can often be time-sensitive. 

Thankfully, Blockpass is positioned to enable fast, efficient and effective identity verification, covering KYC and AML requirements and continually improving and evolving to meet incoming regulatory guidelines. Not only does this ensure that companies are compliant, but due to Blockpass' unique reusable identity profiles it also reduces the cost significantly and allows users to onboard instantly to any business in the Blockpass ecosystem once their profile is verified - removing the frustration and time lost when signing up to new companies. 

The UK also continues to point towards a crypto-positive outlook as the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, takes office. Mr Sunak pushed for a crypto-friendly stance during his time as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is likely to hold to his views as PM. When announcing a series of measures around crypto over the summer, including working with the Royal Mint to create a NFT, Mr Sunak stated "It’s my ambition to make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology, and the measures we’ve outlined today will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country."

The Blockpass platform is fully automated and hosted in the cloud, with no integration or setup fee. Businesses can sign up to the KYC Connect console in a matter of minutes, test out the service, and start conducting identity documents verification, KYC and AML checks. Sign up for FREE at console.blockpass.org.

By Matthew Warner