UK Regulators Take A Closer Look At Initial Coin Offering Token Sales

The watchdog said it'd noticed steady growth in the volume of contracts for trades linked to electronic currencies. For this reason, Britain's market regulators will increase its observation initial coin offerings to determine if new rules are essential to protect investors due to an alert posted earlier this month.

New rules may be put into place to prevent the the marketing, or sale of cryptocurrencies to ordinary investors and restrict the advertising, sale or distribution of tokens in the near future.

Paul Lewis, a partner at Linklaters, said that the regulatory definitions of ICOs were frequently uncertain due to many factors being involved. “Our findings will help to ascertain whether or not there is need for more regulatory action in this region.” “This trend raises important concerns about possible harm to retail customers,” the FCA explained.

Jake Green, associate in the firm Ashurst, stated the business was anticipating new EU laws in next year that give regulators the option to ban these transactions.

The FCA, in another press release, said it agreed with the ESMA in its own consideration of future EU-wide product intervention. The FCA also released an intention for a public consultation on dispersed ledger technologies, the common electronic database structure that powers cryptocurrencies.

The Financial Conduct Advisory board stated it would gather further evidence available on the market and run a deeper evaluation of what it's called fast-paced developments.