FCA grants approval to a crypto firm under AML-CTF norms; Others continue to wait

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s or FCA has accepted registration requests by digital asset market maker Wintermute under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing or AML-CTF regime for crypto firms. According to the Wintermute website, the platform’s cumulative trading volume stood at $1.72 trillion since January 2020.

In addition to that, data from the firm’s site revealed that it trades more than $5B on a daily basis across dozens of different trading platforms and facilitates more than 5,000 trading pairs.

The latest developments assumed significance because it took more than a year and a half of in and out with the FCA to gain approval of the application that encompasses the firm’s over-the-counter [OTC] spot business. Speaking on the news, the company’s chief operating officer Marina Gurevich said

“Wintermute has always held itself to the highest compliance standards and has built rigorous KYC-AML processes.” Reading along similar lines the official tweet stated, “We view this registration as an important step in our continued dialogue with the regulators globally.”

FCA’s stricter rules have led many crypto firms to shift

About 100 crypto firms are still waiting for the green signal to begin their operation in the U.K. As March 31 deadline approaches, it seems FCA‘s delaying tactics might force many crypto service providers to move their business offshore in order to avoid stricter, new anti-money laundering regulations.

A total of 96 crypto firms’ fate hangs in balance, with just six having won full approval, as per sources. More than half of the 153 firms that applied have either been rejected or decided to withdraw to avoid an outright denial that could dent their ability to apply for AML approval in other nations.

Of that, 27 are firms still operating under the temporary approval permissions that are slated to expire next month, and 69 have their applications pending.

The March deadline to win a place on the AML register has the potential to backfire, a representative of Vienna-based cryptocurrency exchange BitPanda told in an interview. Last June, crypto loan provider Celsius said in a blog post that “increased regulatory uncertainty” forced it to shift from the U.K. to the U.S. And had stopped accepting new U.K. clients.