United Kingdom regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is scaling up its crypto regulations targeting criminal activities associated with Bitcoin.
In a tender notice, the FCA is looking for experts to train its staff on identifying possible criminal activities related to cryptocurrencies, City AM reports.
The agency is spending £500,000 (~$671,000) on consultants on the possible blockchain analytics firm that will assist its staff root out vices such as money launderers and terrorists in relation to cryptocurrencies.
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The FCA will hire services of a third-party company as part of its mandates to accelerate its duties as the supervisor of digital assets in the UK.
FCA’s approach comes considering the significant number of UK residents holding Bitcoin. Earlier research by the regulator stated that about 1.9 million people in the UK hold Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Increased crypto regulations
In recent months, the FCA has increasingly focused on regulating the crypto sector while issuing warnings to investors about the stability of digital currencies.
In this line, the FCA banned several crypto-related businesses in the country. In June, the regulator indicated that the crypto exchange Binance was not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK.
Overall, the FCA’s main focus has been on having solid anti-money laundering regulations in place. This year, amid the cryptocurrency sector growth, the FCA released new proposals seeking to tighten anti-money laundering regulations.
One of the controversial proposals would see the target entities that the authority termed as high risk for money laundering. The businesses under this category are directly supervised for Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations.
Recently, the watchdog highlighted its intention to have more powers to govern the online promotion of cryptocurrencies. According to FCA, the move would help curb the flooding of inappropriate content, which has no value.
In managing crypto advertisement, as we previously reported, there is an ongoing investigation of an advertisement for the Floki Inu (FLOKI) cryptocurrency placed on public transportation in London.
The probe is being conducted by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to determine if it violated any regulations.
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