UK’s FCA issued over 140 alerts one day after the new rules came into force

The UK’s FCA issued around 146 alerts within 24 hours after its new rules came into force.

The rules became official regulations yesterday, October 8, with the intention of governing the marketing of cryptocurrency investments.

What do the new rules require of crypto firms?

According to the new laws in the UK, any company that wants to promote digital currencies in the country is obligated by the law to be authorized and registered by the FCA. Alternatively, they can have another company that is authorized by the FCA approve of their marketing, and become a responsible party in case something is not in accordance with the new regulations.

Further, the FCA rules also dictate that promotions must be transparent and clear, fair, and not in any way misleading. They must be labeled with prominent risk warnings, and they are not allowed to incentivize people to invest inappropriately.

The company introduced the rules earlier this year, in June, announcing that the companies have until October 8 to prepare for the rules’ arrival in full. The FCA even reached out to over 150 companies to warn them about the rules, just in case some of them were unaware of the changes to the country’s regulations.

However, the regulator was disappointed when only 24 companies responded to its warning, while the others ignored it. Given the situation, the FCA issued a “final warning” several weeks earlier, threatening to sue any foreign crypto company that continues to conduct business in the UK without being authorized and regulatory compliant.

Binance and OKX among the first to comply

With the new rules set into place, some major crypto firms have already responded. OKX, for example, clearly added risk warnings to its platforms, and Binance even created a new, special platform specifically for the UK.

As for all the other firms that fail to engage, they will be in breach of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as the regulator warned. “This would be a criminal offence punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both,” the FCA said in its final warning to foreign crypto companies operating in the UK.

“We will take action against firms illegally promoting to UK consumers including, but not limited to, placing firms on our Warning List and taking steps to remove or block any illegal financial promotions such as websites, social media accounts and apps.”

As mentioned, since the rules officially came into force yesterday, October 8, the regulator was forced to issue 146 alerts due to the companies still ignoring the new law, which the FCA will not allow.