The United Kingdom’s next prime minister is Rishi Sunak. Sunak supports bitcoin and wants to turn the UK into a major center for it. In the midst of this, UK MPs have decided to accept cryptocurrencies as regulated goods and financial instruments.
Recently, the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs [HMRC] Department published a series of laws to define “designated crypto assets.” The Investment Manager Exemption is applicable to transactions involving these assets filed starting with the tax year 2022–2023 in the UK. On January 1st, 2023, the same was supposed to take effect.
New Cryptocurrency Unit Created By Crime Agency
After a year in which $3 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen through hacks worldwide, the UK’s National Crime Agency is hiring a team of law enforcement officials to look into cryptocurrency crimes.
According to a job posting on the government website, originally seen by Financial News, investigators “shall be dedicated to a proactive cryptocurrency remit with the relevant tools and capacities to target UK-based suspects” as members of the national cybercrime section “crypto cell.”
The Financial Conduct Authority discovered that between March 2021 and April 2022, financial fraud alerts in the UK were most prevalent in the cryptocurrency sector. During that time, the agency opened 432 cases to investigate schemes involving cryptocurrencies.
According to an annual enforcement review released by the Financial Conduct Authority, there were 8,568 alleged crypto scams reported to the organization between April 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. That represents a roughly 36% increase from the same period the previous year. This number tops the board and is more than twice as high as the second-place fraud category of pension transfer to a new scheme.
The FCA’s “ScamSmart” campaign, which also contains a warning to consumers about the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies, includes the data release. In its annual public review meeting earlier in October, the FCA reaffirmed the project’s significance and warned cryptocurrency investors that they may “lose all their money.”