Cryptocurrencies have proven to be the future of transactions – we are seeing similar new technological developments that make our lives better every day. As part of an ongoing global effort to regulate the volatile cryptocurrency market, the United Kingdom has revealed its plan to implement business-friendly crypto regulations sometime during 2019. Following their departure from EU, UK is currently faced with businesses moving away from the island to continental Europe. The tides might still turn, however, as more and more companies turn to blockchain and its most well-known embodiment, cryptocurrencies, in attempts to improve transaction speeds, reduce fees and improve security – all at the same time.
The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) have therefore announced a close collaboration with the Treasury Committee with the goal of performing analyses of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related risks and investment opportunities.
Crypto regulations, or at least their minimal implementation based on a set of rules, has perhaps been the main topic of the crypto world since the big dip which hit the market in February of 2018, forecasting shadows of a long overdue “crypto winter”. While there are certainly some interest groups who openly oppose any such regulations (“pump and dump” groups and “whales” being the most obvious ones), companies and ordinary people, so-called “regular investors”, would certainly benefit from a regulated market. If regulations in place prevent any type of scams, investors can focus on the technology and ideas behind the product, and companies can push the development. In a market showing the potential of a tenfold increase in the next couple of years, this seems to be the right and the only logical thing to do.
Official efforts to regulate the market come only weeks after the announcement of the LCCX (London Crypto Currency Exchange), a decentralized, regulated crypto-exchange platform with insurance mechanisms, many crypto and fiat pairings, and even live chat support to offer real-time guidance and assistance for its users. While there are other similar projects already in development, LCCX aims at full transparency and plans to list its physical location on the website as a sort of assurance for its visitors. Furthermore, in order to support these regulatory efforts, the exchange intends to work closely with FCA and other regulatory bodies worldwide when needed and – this might be the most important of all – provide financial insurance for its users in case of hacks. After the infamous attack on Coincheck in January of this year, which itself cost more than half a billion US dollars, it is imperative to understand the magnitude of the threat that hackers pose for exchanges and thus, indirectly, their users.
The good news comes at the same time as the anticipation of a long-awaited Bitcoin bull run, which might, at last, take the market cap past $1 trillion, a record-breaking line it came up short of in January 2018.