The UK's financial regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has declared that all crypto ATMs operating in the country are not authorized to provide such services and must be shut down.
In an official statement on Friday, the regulatory watchdog noted that cryptocurrency firms wishing to operate a crypto ATM must be registered with it and comply with the country's Money Laundering Regulations (MLR).
Crypto ATM Operators Not Licensed in the UK
According to the FCA, none of the registered UK crypto firms has been licensed to operate an ATM. According to data from Coin ATM Radar, there are currently a total of 80 crypto ATMs operating in the UK.
The FCA referred to the crypto ATM services firm Gidiplus, which had applied for license to operate crypto ATM services in the UK but was denied approval by the regulator. Although the firm took legal action against the rejection, the Upper Tribunal ruled that there was a "lack of evidence as to how Gidiplus would undertake its business in a broadly compliant fashion."
The FCA further warned that crypto ATM operators who fail to shut down their facilities will face further action. It said, "We are concerned about crypto ATMs operating in the UK and will therefore be contacting the operators instructing that the machines be shut down or face further action."
The regulator pointed out that it had published a comprehensive list of unregistered crypto firms that may have been continuing to operate crypto ATMs. However, the FCA revealed that a more recent assessment has discovered that about 110 of those ATM terminals are no longer in service.
The FCA finally reiterated its warnings about the risks associated with cryptocurrency investments, advising citizens to steer clear of these digital assets to avoid losing their money.
"We regularly warn consumers that cryptoassets are unregulated and high-risk which means people are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong, so people should be prepared to lose all their money if they choose to invest in them."
The FCA never fails to seize every opportunity to remind investors that they could lose all their money from investing in crypto assets. Last year, the regulator organized an £11 million campaign to warn young investors of crypto risks, seeing as they are becoming interested in the emerging asset class.
As of Monday, March 7, there were a total of 106 firms applying for FCA registration to offer crypto services. Currently, 27 of them have been fully registered, 56 withdrew their applications, and the remaining 23 firms have been classified under the FCA’s Temporary Registration Regime (TRR).
The 23 TRR firms can continue to operate while their applications are under assessment until the approval deadline of March 31.
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