The UK Financial Conduct Authority has laid out a detailed timetable for its new crypto regime. Firms that want to operate in the UK or serve local clients must apply for FCA authorization between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027, and existing anti-money laundering registrations will not carry over automatically. The framework is scheduled to come into force on October 25, 2027.
The headline measure is capital. The FCA has chosen a single standard for eligible crypto assets listed on UK trading platforms, setting the requirement at 40% of a firm’s net risk position. That replaces an earlier two-tier risk approach. For stablecoin issuers, the capital coefficient first proposed at 2% has been cut to 1% after industry feedback.
Fresh authorization will be required under the new regime
The regulator will open a pre-application support window in July 2026, giving firms time to prepare before the formal filing period begins in late September. For many businesses, the key point is simple: an AML registration is not the same as authorization under the new framework, so companies already active in the market will still need to go through a new approval process.
The article notes limited exemptions for some overseas firms that provide investment services to institutional clients. Even so, the broader structure is designed to reach most high-volume crypto activity in the UK, which puts exchanges, custodians, and digital stablecoin issuers squarely in scope.
Annual stress testing becomes a formal obligation
Capital is only one part of the package. Crypto companies will also have to run annual stress tests and show the FCA how they would deal with severe market declines and potentially heavy losses. In contrast to the Bank of England model, where regulators design the scenarios, crypto firms will prepare their own scenarios for FCA review and supervisory oversight.
David Geale said the package is built around two goals: consumer protection and competitive advantage for the UK. He described it as the first holistic crypto framework in the country, covering how firms operate, safeguard assets, serve customers, and manage risk.
Market abuse rules expand across UK trading venues
Crypto assets listed on FCA-supervised UK platforms will face rules similar to those applied to listed securities, especially in insider dealing and market manipulation. Platforms with annual turnover above £10 million will also have to share surveillance data with one another, making cross-platform manipulation easier to spot.
The FCA also identified two activities as acceptable market practices: permanent reductions in token supply through coin burns, and price stabilization measures during primary or secondary token sales. The message is not that every intervention is banned. The regulator is drawing lines around what it considers permissible.
Different from MiCA, and harder for cross-border firms to streamline
The UK approach overlaps with the EU’s MiCA in broad intent, but the structures are not the same. Under MiCA, a company licensed in one EU member state can operate across the bloc. In the UK, any firm that wants to serve UK customers must secure approval directly from the FCA rather than rely on an EU license.
The UK is also adding elements that stand out from MiCA, including mandatory annual stress tests, a unified net-risk capital rule, and tighter supervisory oversight. For international crypto businesses, that means compliance work will likely need to be built for both regimes if they want access to both markets.
The rules tighten oversight, but they do not remove investment risk
The FCA continues to warn that people buying crypto assets face a real possibility of losing all of their money. Dan Coatsworth, Head of Markets at AJ Bell, said the rules may improve consumer protection and reduce harm tied to misleading promotions and poor practices, but they cannot erase the underlying risk.
With US federal crypto legislation still under debate, the UK has become the first major financial center outside the EU to put a full crypto regime on a formal timetable. For firms targeting the British market, the preparation phase has already begun.