“The existing AML registration process at the FCA, which is much more restrictive, is already incredibly demanding, with the FCA rejecting or forcing the withdrawal of over 85% of applications,” he said in an emailed comment. The new framework introduces significantly broader requirements covering consumer duty, supervisory standards, operational resilience and senior management accountability.
Cattee also warned firms against delaying applications, pointing to MiCA’s rollout in Europe, where many firms waited until deadlines approached, creating licensing bottlenecks that left some firms without authorization in time.
For institutional investors, however, the new framework represents more than just another crypto rulebook.
Sandy Jones, director of digital assets at Baillie Gifford, said regulation does not automatically make crypto safer, but provides the legal certainty and governance standards needed for traditional financial (TradFi) institutions to adopt blockchain-based infrastructure.
“The underlying technology is strong, but it doesn’t create a direct path into mainstream financial markets on its own,” Jones said. “You need legal clarity, operational robustness, proper governance and rules that investors and institutions can recognise.”
Jones also welcomed the FCA’s recent tweaks to its stablecoin regime, arguing that they create robust settlement infrastructure without imposing unnecessary operational friction.
The industry response suggests that the FCA has deliberately positioned the UK as a commercially pragmatic alternative to Europe’s MiCA regime. But whether that translates into companies choosing the UK over other jurisdictions depends less on the ambition of the framework than on how predictably it is implemented in the coming months.
