Britain should woo bitcoin boosters

The City is missing a trick, says Matthew Lynn. London is the natural home for the growing cryptocurrency industry.

Wyoming is mostly known for cowboys and ranches. It is the second least densely populated American state after Alaska and its only major attraction is Yellowstone National Park. It has lowish corporate taxes, and light regulation, which means that it is sometimes used to shelter money, but otherwise it doesn’t have much of a tradition as a finance centre. That might be about to change, however. In May, the state formally passed into law legislation that will make it one of the world’s most attractive crypto-centres.

It has created a new legal class of asset known as a “utility token”. This means that bitcoins or other forms of electronic money don’t have to be categorised as either a commodity or a security, and don’t have to be regulated like them either. Blockchain…