[2018-02-13] Cryptocurrency Giants Form Self-Regulatory UK Trade Body

[nickbelski]

Seven of the biggest crypto companies have joined forces this week to form the first UK trade body for the industry, as reported by The Telegraph. Pre-empting the ever-looming threat of the financial authorities,  they have produced a code-of-conduct, which they hope will form the basis of any future regulation.

INDUSTRY-WIDE SELF-REGULATION

CryptoUK will represent the interests of the entire cryptocurrency sector, and its founder members reflect this diversity.

Initially, the body covers exchanges, trading platforms and comparison sites for buyers and sellers of tokens. Also represented are intermediaries and merchants, those who facilitate and accept payments and transactions. And finally, asset managers and providers of crypto-based hedge and investment funds.

It seems one of the few things not currently covered are ICOs, but the working group is also currently considering these as well. One of the founding members, BlockEx, already offer a complaint ICO product, so I can’t see this addition being that far off.

And of course, CryptoUK is also open to new members who sign up to the code of conduct.

CODE OF CONDUCT

The code of conduct is a twelve point working document which all members must subscribe to. It is based on three key principles:

• UK leadership: Members recognize the UK’s potential to become a global leader in the FinTech industry. And that this requires the promotion of a supportive environment.
• Promoting appropriate regulation: Members support the introduction of appropriate industry regulation in the UK. This should serve consumer safety, promotion of best practice, and provide certainty and clarity.
• Self-regulation: Members must take appropriate measures to know their customers, act fairly, maintain standards and prevent crime. They must also work together to further improve the standards within the code of conduct.

ALL FAIRLY POSITIVE AND PROACTIVE

It certainly can’t hurt for the UK crypto-industry to throw its own set of regulations into the ring before having the government’s rules thrust open it. We must hope that this organization attracts a large membership and shows that the industry can self-regulate.

This should encourage the authorities to apply a lighter regulatory brush, enabling this trade body to set the agenda. Bravo for them.

The seven founder companies are BlockEx, CEX.IO, Coinbase, CoinShares, CommerceBlock, CryptoCompare, and eToro.

Source: http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-giants-form-self-regulatory-uk-trade-body/

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[gentlemand]

No Coinfloor? That's pretty much the only UK exchange with any action.

It would be nice if the UK government produced more than a few now four year old paragraphs from the tax man about how it's to be treated. The banks won't play until there's some proper regulation. Unsexy but that's the only way Britain will stop being a crypto wasteland.

[tiggytomb]

I think this is a pretty good move, to get ahead of any government regulations and self regulate, I would rather initially that it went this way rather then the government coming in heavy handed and just doing some kind of blanket type regulation without having enough expertise.

[CryptoBry]

Self-regulation is the best type of regulation as it speaks leadership and the willingness of the industry to police its own rank. The big reason why the government can be involved is because there are participants who are so willing to break the law just for them to get ahead of the game. It is just but natural for the government to act when there will be people who are abused and taken advantage of...though in many cases the government can also abused this power. It is about time that the cryptocurrency participants and players band themselves together and seek legal recognition for the group they are forming so that members will follow the rules established by themselves. This idea should be a big trend in 2018. Self-regulation is it!

[Schirer]

I believe that this is good, this will give the crypto world some legitamcy and could be postive in situation when Goverment finally wil start to recognise crypto and wil start to give out laws. In other words they will have a strong voice and will benefit the whole community,

Not a huge fan of Etoro , had bad experience with them  XD
Also was expecting Bitstmap in this list, was convined that they are huge UK based excange, maybe I am wrong after all.

[gentlemand]

Also was expecting Bitstmap in this list, was convined that they are huge UK based excange, maybe I am wrong after all.

Their only link to the UK was a rented post box in a building to fulfil some legalese.

They've always been Slovenian. They're now regulated via Luxembourg so presumably their links to the UK are gone, not that there really were any in the first place.