Lisa Cameron, an MP in the UK House of Commons, is reportedly chairing a lobby group aimed at promoting cryptocurrency-related legislation in government.
According to a report from the Financial Times on Friday, Members of Parliament, as well as members of the House of Lords in the UK, launched the Crypto and Digital Assets Group to ensure that standards for the cryptocurrency industry in the UK “support innovation” starting last week. The multi-party group aims to protect investors from financial crimes, including token scams or offerings from regulated companies.
“We are at a crucial time for the sector as global policy makers are now also reviewing their approach to cryptocurrencies and how they should be regulated,” said Cameron.
The country’s self-regulatory trade group for the cryptocurrency industry, CryptoUK, reportedly supported the creation of the advocacy group. According to CryptoUK CEO Ian Taylor, the group intends to spend more than $ 67,000 in 2022 to support the Crypto & Digital Assets Group, with a focus on “education, education, education” around crypto assets.
In 2021, the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued numerous warnings to retail investors, warning them of the potential risk in dealing with crypto firms that are not yet registered with the country’s financial watchdog. The UK Advertising Standards Authority, the country’s independent advertising regulator, also withdrew ads from cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase and Kraken.
The apparent growing concern over cryptocurrency scams and illicit transactions in the UK comes as a report by Chainalysis showed that scammers received $ 7.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen from victims throughout 2021, of which more than 2.8 billion came from rug pulls. Chainalysis attributed the prevalence of crypto thefts to the “hype of the space,” in addition to the lack of code audits for certain DeFi projects.