The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has pledged to speed up approvals for companies involved in cryptocurrency trading after years of the regulator being accused of stifling innovation.
Since 2020, any firm seeking to conduct cryptoasset business in the UK has been required to register with the FCA and demonstrate compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules. So far, 55 companies have been added to the register.
However, industry groups have complained about the FCA’s reluctance to move quickly compared with rival jurisdictions. Both the EU and US have moved faster to approve exchange-traded crypto funds and open markets to retail investors, while regulators in Dubai and Singapore are actively courting digital asset businesses.
Faster approvals after years of delays
The UK’s FCA pledged to update its approach to cryptocurrency registrations, promising faster approvals and a more accessible process after years of being criticized by the cryptocurrency industry.
Simon Jennings, the executive director of the UK Cryptoasset Business Council, said, “We’ve seen first-hand that even multibillion-dollar firms can spend years trying to secure UK authorization — and the reality is, they won’t wait around forever.”
Former chancellor George Osborne, now an adviser to Coinbase, has also weighed in saying, “On crypto and stablecoins, as on too many other things, the hard truth is this: we’re being completely left behind. It’s time to catch up.”
Since April, the FCA has approved the registrations of five crypto companies, including BlackRock and Standard Chartered, while rejecting or seeing the withdrawal of six others. With that, the acceptance rate rose to 45% compared with less than 15% in the previous five years.
According to data released to the Financial Times, the average processing time for successful applications has also dropped dramatically. Companies that registered in the past year completed the process in just over five months, compared with an average of 17 months for those approved two years earlier.
David Geale, the FCA’s executive director for payments and digital finance, said the agency had “made a conscious effort to put resources into this.”
“We have sped up our authorizations across the piece and have made some quite significant progress.” Geale added.
The FCA introduced pre-approval meetings, roundtables and webinars to guide applicants through the process, while also encouraging firms to submit stronger applications. “What we tend to get is a better quality of application and that certainly speeds things up,” Geale said.
Decline in applications despite improvements
While approvals are accelerating, the number of companies applying to register has fallen sharply. In the year to April 2023, 46 applications were filed. By April 2025, that figure had dropped to 26.
Approvals also slid from eight in 2022–23 to just three in 2024–25, before rebounding slightly in the past six months.
Industry observers believe this slowdown is due to companies delaying submissions ahead of the planned complete crypto regulatory framework that is expected to be introduced next year in the UK.
“I don’t think interest in the UK has dropped, but I do think it’s possible that some firms are pausing to take stock and see how its crypto regulation develops.” Brett Hillis, a partner at Reed Smith, said.
The FCA itself suggested that the prospect of broader rules may be influencing timing decisions.
The FCA’s recent efforts include inviting newly registered companies to share their experience. Raphael Landesmann, regulatory counsel at crypto trading firm GSR, said the firm had been asked to advise others at an FCA workshop after its successful registration in December.
“We have seen very considerable efforts by the FCA in that regard,” he said.
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