Brexit Britain Can’t Rope-In Crypto Cowboys Alone

According to Bloomberg Opinion columnist, Lionel Laurent Brexit Britain must get serious about regulating digital asset industry. Crypto regulation needs international efforts which cannot be done alone. Lionel Laurent believes that London cannot do the crypto regulation alone.

In a UK Treasury Committee, Digital Currencies inquiry report the term Wild West is used is repeatedly used as an analogy for crypto landscape. The report is highly self-reflective. The committee report states that crypto assets have been embedded in certain pockets of society and industry. It is highly likely that the cryptos are there to stay. The UK Government and financial service regulators have to decide whether they will allow the Wild West situation to continue or they are introducing regulations. According to the research firm, Crypto Aware there has been scams and exchange hacks of over $2.3 billion in past seven years that is why it becomes important to regulate digital assets properly. Without proper regulations, there are high chances of fraud and market manipulation.

According to Lionel Laurent, fight against money laundering and financial crimes need funding and regional co-operation which will be hampered when the Britain exit from European Union. In the future, cryptocurrencies may threaten to destabilize financial systems all over the world. Few indicators point to Brexit Britain finding the ability to leverage comprehensive crypto regulation on their own. At this point of time low, hanging fruit of crypto regulation is the only option for the UK in the light of Brexit. Lionel Laurent believes that proper regulations can harness the positive aspects of digital assets while keeping the negative aspects at bay. After exiting European Union (EU), UK will lose out the benefits of comprehensive regulations and other legal niceties offered by inclusion in EU. Alone Britain can also miss out on the broader efforts of EU such as anti-money laundering directive which also covers crypto exchanges.

As the prices of cryptocurrencies are going down, the demand for digital assets is increasing in the United Kingdom. With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, UK has to move forward to properly regulate the crypto industry. Now the question remains that will UK be able to regulate crypto sphere properly without EU.