Global crypto rules needed to keep markets clean, says UK watchdog

International crypto companies like Binance must be governed by global laws in order to "keep markets clean," according to a statement made on Thursday by the British Financial Conduct Authority.

The majority of the world's cryptocurrency companies are unregulated, but several nations want proof that they have effective safeguards in place to thwart money laundering.

The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, was told by the FCA last year that it was "not capable of being adequately monitored" and so could not engage in any regulated activity in Britain.

Regulators in Spain, France, and Italy have this year given Binance permission to operate in those countries' domestic marketplaces.

In answer to a query on whether authorities are being pitted against one another by cryptocurrency startups, FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi said at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, "I believe some global baseline norms are vital."

The clean markets that we all want depend on having excellent shared regulatory standards and information sharing across borders, according to Rathi. "As we have seen in other domains like anti-money laundering, these are essentially cross-border actions by some very well organized players," he added.

After rejecting applications from a large number of organizations, the regulator has come under fire from the cryptocurrency industry.

We will always be vigilant about consumer protection when it comes to cryptocurrencies, Rathi stated.

Rathi said that, regrettably, the FCA's long-ago warning that holders of crypto currencies may lose all of their money has come true after the recent decline in the price of bitcoin.

A global regulatory agency, the Financial Stability Board, said this week that it planned to provide draft proposals for regulating crypto assets to G20 nations in October.

Earlier this month, a French member of the European Parliament asked the French market regulator to reconsider its decision to register Binance.