Industry Insiders: UK Crypto Regulation Hampered by "Policy Paralysis," Now Clearly Lagging Behind the EU and US

The UK is losing its early advantage in digital asset regulation due to "policy procrastination," with experts warning that the country has clearly fallen behind the regulatory pace set by the EU and the US. According to a recent blog post published by the independent think tank Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), the UK is squandering its first-mover advantage in the field of distributed ledger finance. In their article titled "The UK Continues to Miss Out on DLT Financial Opportunities," OMFIF Chairman John Orchard and Digital Monetary Institute Editor Lewis McLellan criticize the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) "crypto roadmap" for the conspicuous lack of specific dates in the section on the "formal launch of the regulatory regime," only vaguely mentioning that it might occur sometime after 2026. This stands in stark contrast to the post-Brexit vision of the UK becoming the "gold standard" for crypto regulation. In comparison, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has already come into effect, and the US Senate has passed the "Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act" (GENIUS Act), establishing a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins. Experts point out that the UK's lack of a viable regulatory framework "hampers its ability to adapt to the potential for fully on-chain finance."