United Kingdom to launch Digital Securities Sandbox in Q1 2024
The Digital Securities Sandbox at His Majesty’s Treasury will have “a new rule set that would allow it to do new things with digital securities.” By the first quarter of 2024, the United Kingdom will have its second crypto sandbox. It will be solely concerned with digital securities.
Helen Boyd, the head of capital markets at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), stated His Majesty’s Treasury plans to launch a Digital Securities Sandbox towards the end of Q1 2024 during her keynote at the CCData Digital Asset Summit on Oct. 3. Despite being a de facto autonomous financial regulator, the FCA reports to the UK Treasury.
According to Boyd, the future Digital Securities Sandbox would be distinct from the FCA’s existing operational Digital Sandbox, which was established in August 2023. The FCA’s Digital Sandbox is intended to help tech companies in the early phases of product development, whereas the Treasury’s Digital Securities Sandbox will feature “a new rule set that would allow it to do new things with digital securities.” According to the official announcement of the Digital Securities Sandbox, it will allow companies “to set up financial market infrastructures that utilise digital asset technology, which can perform a number of activities in relation to digital securities under a temporarily modified legislative and regulatory framework.”
Boyd also discussed the FCA’s future as the primary regulator of cryptocurrency in the United Kingdom. She explained that the agency is currently waiting for the Treasury to decide how much authority the FCA should have. The UK’s Travel Rule goes into effect, potentially halting certain cryptocurrency transfers Recently, British regulators have been harsh on the digital asset industry, with the Treasury mulling a blanket ban on crypto investment cold calls and the FCA issuing a final warning to local crypto businesses that do not follow its marketing regulations.
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