The United Kingdom’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has announced that cryptocurrency Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) operators operating within the country are to shut down their machines with immediate effect or face penalties as they are unlicensed.
According to an FCA notice published on Friday, none of the crypto ATM operators in the UK are registered to do business in the country. As such, all such machines are operating illegally.
It reads, “Crypto ATMs offering cryptoasset exchange services in the UK must be registered with us and comply with UK Money Laundering Regulations (MLR). None of the cryptoasset firms registered with us have been approved to offer crypto ATM services, meaning that any of them operating in the UK are doing so illegally and consumers should not be using them.”
What you should know
- According to data from CoinATMRadar, there are 81 crypto ATMs in the UK, with the majority located in the London Area. Manchester, Oxford and Birmingham also host a few machines.
- The FCA’s notice comes on the heels of a court ruling against Gidiplus, a crypto ATM operator in the UK. Gidiplus previously lodged an appeal with the Upper Tribunal challenging the FCA’s decision to reject its licensing application under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) regime.
- The note reads, “The Upper Tribunal recently ruled against Gidiplus, a firm offering crypto ATM services, which wanted to continue trading, pending the Upper Tribunal’s determination of its appeal against us refusing its application for registration under the MLRs. The judge concluded that there was a ‘lack of evidence as to how Gidiplus would undertake its business in a broadly compliant fashion’.”
- The FCA has granted registration approval to 33 crypto companies since August 2020 under the MLR framework, the most notable of which being: Gemini Europe Ltd, Kraken‘s holding company Payward Ltd, Galaxy Digital UK Limited and, more recently added to the list, eToro (UK) Ltd.
- Additionally, the FCA has offered temporary registration status to 22 companies until March 31, 2022, at which time a decision will be determined on the validity of their application. These companies include the likes of Blockchain Access UK Limited (blockchain.com), Copper Technologies (UK) Limited, Revolut Ltd and Wirex Ltd, among others.
The note concluded by stating, “Since we published the list of unregistered crypto firms that may have been continuing to conduct business, a recent assessment found that 110 are no longer operational.
“We regularly warn consumers that cryptoassets are unregulated and high-risk which means people are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong, so people should be prepared to lose all their money if they choose to invest in them.”
