Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs become the new victims of UK financial regulators, led by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
According to a new regulation of the regulatory entity, none of the companies that offer services through ATMs are registered, nor have they been approved or authorized by them to operate in the country. Therefore order immediate closure of the cashiers
In that sense, they explain in a release published, today, March 11, that «anyone who operates a bitcoin ATM in the United Kingdom you will be doing it illegally And that’s why consumers shouldn’t use them either.”
In the text they say they are “concerned” about the activity with these machines and, therefore, they are sending notifications to the companies so that they leave the devices out of operation or they will have to face sanctions.
The FCA reiterates, as is customary in its documents, that crypto assets “are not regulated and are high risk”, so people who decide to enter that market do not have their protection.
So far UK has 81 ATMs in operation of bitcoin. Of this total, 51 are in the city of London. The rest are deployed in other cities such as Birmingham and Manchester, among other locations where there is a smaller proportion of machines, according to data Coin ATM Radar.
By the end of 2020, one of the leading companies offering Bitcoin-focused crypto-asset ATM (CATM) service, Gidiplus Limited, had been rejected as a “crypto asset exchange provider” by the FCA. This was due to having – in the opinion of the agency – weak identity controls (KYC). Something that, in the opinion of the FCA, increased the risks of money laundering.
Apparently, after learning that the machines would be classified as illegal, Gidiplus would have sold its ATMs to a buyer in Eastern Europe, according reports the British media The Telegraph.
Regulators fence crypto and NFT users
In recent months, the UK authorities have embarked on something of a crusade against the cryptocurrency ecosystem, issuing a series of bans.
The maneuvers of the regulators of the United Kingdom reached the level of seizing non-fungible tokens (NFT), a fact reported by CriptoNoticias. This happened when, allegedly, three British citizens they intended to defraud the Exchequer out of £1.4 million (about $1.8 million) through NFTs, according to investigations by the government agency.
Even English soccer teams have fallen victim to the regulations. Last December, two promotions of the fan token belonging to the renowned Arsenal team were banned.
The regulator said that they were allegedly taking advantage of consumers’ “inexperience or gullibility, trivializing investment in crypto assets.”