The United Kingdom has to work harder to become a global center for the crypto industry to avoid falling behind countries like the United States, industrial leaders told CNBC.
The country has said it wants to be a crypto hub since 2022, before the current Labor government was elected, but still this week it began to seek comments on draft law for industry.
The European Union, meanwhile, has already implemented its markets in Crypto Assets Lawsation (MICA), providing a uniform regime across the block and the new US administration of President Donald Trump promotes industry and relaxing regulation.
“If I look at the speed of innovation, I feel the US is ahead – even if they have their own challenges. But look at Singapore, Hong Kong – again, you see much faster innovation,” Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Digital Bank Zopa, told CNBC. “I think we’re still ahead of the EU, but we can’t remain complicated with it.”
Trump has, for his part, called for departments to produce crypto-reflection policies, and stablecoin legislation is working through the Senate. The stableCOin sector could rise 10 times to reach $ 2 trillion within three years of the law passing of the legislation, the standard chartered has predicted.
“Other jurisdictions have begun to seize the opportunity,” said Cassie Craddock, CEO of the UK and Europe in the blockchain company Ripple, in an interview with CNBC.
Mark Fairless, CEO of Payments Infrastructure Firm Clearbank, said his business has been looking to develop his own stablecoin and has been held back by the lack of legislative clarity.
Stableecoins are “part of our medium term, long -term strategy,” Fairless told CNBC. “We see ourselves well created for it.” However, he added that a Clearbank stableCoin will only be possible when there is clarity from British regulators, including the Bank of England.
Still, the country has not completely missed the bus.
“The United Kingdom is still the good place to create. We have all the ingredients there because we have got the ecosystem, we have this talent of creating new businesses,” said Lisa Jacobs, CEO of Business Lending Platform Funding Circle. “But it has to go on. We can’t rest on our laurels.”
“I think the United Kingdom gets it right – but there is a risk if you get it wrong that you drive innovation to other markets,” Keith Grose, Coinbas’s British head, told CNBC.
Read more: The United Kingdom has created cryptobank problems
