Sharp rise in watchdog scrutiny of UK cryptocurrency groups

The number of cryptocurrency businesses in the crosshairs of the UK’s financial watchdog leapt by 74 per cent in the past year, as the Financial Conduct Authority estimates that consumers have lost at least £27m in crypto and foreign-exchange scams.

The FCA now has 87 inquiries on its books into crypto companies, compared with 50 this time last year, according to recent data. The number includes early-stage scrutiny as well as full-blown enforcement investigations.

David Heffron, a partner at Pinsent Masons, the law firm, who gleaned the data from the FCA, said that the increased scrutiny “reflects the FCA’s increasingly hands-on and no-nonsense approach to enforcing the law in the cryptocurrency market”.

“For cryptocurrency businesses acting lawfully these statistics will be encouraging — they want bad actors pushed out.”

The regulator declined to comment on the statistics.

The FCA is taking a tough line on companies that punt cryptocurrencies and related…