Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on developing regulations for cryptocurrency.

The government has taken forward a series of regulatory measures to protect consumers, manage market integrity risks and support innovation. Since 2020 the FCA has been the anti-money laundering supervisor for cryptoasset firms. In January 2022 the government confirmed the intention to bring certain cryptoassets into the scope of the Financial Promotion Order to ensure that cryptoasset promotions are fair, clear, and not misleading.

Further, the government considers that some cryptoassets may already fall within the relevant UK legal frameworks. However, this also depends on the structure of the token and nature of the activities concerned.

At Fintech Week, the government set out the firm ambition to make Britain a global hub for cryptoasset technology and investment. We want to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country. And we have announced a number of reforms which will see the regulation and aspects of tax treatment of cryptoassets evolve.

These include committing to consult on future regulation of a broader set of cryptoasset activities later this year; legislating to bring stablecoins into payments regulation; setting up a ministerial-chaired Cryptoasset Engagement Group, bringing together key figures in industry; working with the Royal Mint to create a Non-Fungible Token; and exploring ways of enhancing the competitiveness of the UK tax system to encourage further development of the cryptoasset market in the UK.

These commitments are in line with our objectives to create a regulatory environment in which firms can innovate, while crucially maintaining financial stability and regulatory standards so that people can use new technologies both reliably and safely.