UK Watchdog recruits Bitcoin Experts to escalate Crypto Crackdown

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), aka UK’s Financial Watchdog, has taken yet another initiative to crackdown on illegal crypto activities in the area. The latest development in UK’s crypto crackdown saw the FCA recruit a team of Bitcoin Experts to further train its employees on matters of identifying financial crimes using crypto.

The regulator’s budget amounts to an extraordinary £500,000, to hire the Bitcoin Experts for consultancy, who will facilitate access to a blockchain analytics platform and train the staff on filtering out crypto crimes like, Money laundering and terrorist rackets. According to an exclusive update on the government’s website, the financial watchdog “requires access to specialist services to support the analysis of crypto-asset blockchain data.”

UK Watchdog’s crackdown on Crypto Ads

This is not the first time that the UK regulators’ are willingly spending a fortune on cracking down crypto in its territory. Earlier this year, during the month of July, the FCA had declared the launch of its digital marketing campaign worth £11m, aimed solely at warning the younger investors in the crypto community of the risks in the crypto market.

According to the chief executive officer, Nikhil Rathi’s speech at the ‘FCA’s Our Role and Business Plan webinar’, the regulatory authority of the UK had dire concerns regarding the rapid hike in the number of younger investors indulging in the volatile market of cryptocurrencies. Rathi asserted that as the use of technology to promote investments has shot through the roof, the authorities are now in grave need to implement an adequate set of regulations and precautions to ensure consumer protection.

“When technology is used to promote new investments to consumers, it is essential that the right controls are in place. We’ve seen an explosion among younger people speculating on cryptocurrencies or other high-risk investments. In the last year, we published research that found nearly 2.5 million people in the UK had bought crypto assets.”, Rathi said according to the Draft of the speech.