The Financial Conduct Authority has published the final rules for the UK’s cryptoasset regime, requiring trading platforms, intermediaries, custodians, stablecoin issuers and staking firms to obtain FCA authorisation to serve UK customers.

The FCA crypto authorisation rules, set out on 30 June 2026, open an authorisation gateway on 30 September 2026 and bring the full regime into force on 25 October 2027. Firms that want to keep operating in the UK have a defined window to apply and a fixed date by which they must be authorised.

David Geale, the FCA’s executive director of payments and digital finance, described a “stable, competitive home to build and grow”.

Five activities now inside the perimeter

The cryptoasset regime covers five regulated activities. Qualifying trading platforms must be authorised and meet market-integrity rules on insider dealing and manipulation. Intermediaries that deal as principal, deal as agent or arrange deals are captured, as are custodians safeguarding client cryptoassets, which must hold them under a dedicated client-assets regime.

 Stablecoin issuers must keep their coins fully backed and redeemable at par. Firms arranging staking for retail customers must meet enhanced protections, including clearer disclosures, explicit consent and appropriateness testing. A firm carrying on more than one activity needs permission for each.

 The regime folds crypto into the existing Financial Services and Markets Act rather than creating a separate code. The Consumer Duty, operational resilience rules, prudential requirements (a capital charge on stablecoin issuance, a net-position requirement elsewhere) and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime all apply.

A higher bar than AML registration

 Most UK crypto firms currently operate only under the narrower anti-money-laundering registration regime, which tests financial-crime controls but not conduct, capital or governance. The FCA has been explicit that this status will not convert automatically into full authorisation.

 That gap matters. The AML process alone has proved hard to clear: the regulator has rejected or forced the withdrawal of more than 85% of applicants over recent years, according to its published registration statistics.

 Thomas Cattee, partner at Gherson Solicitors, said there was “a very high risk of failure for crypto firms applying for authorisation”, pointing to AML controls, Consumer Duty compliance, prudential standards and senior-management accountability as the main stumbling blocks. He pointed to the EU’s MiCA rollout as a warning, where delayed applications “created severe regulatory bottlenecks” and left some firms unable to obtain licences before strict deadlines.

One regulator, but an uneven load

 Christopher Collins, a financial markets and regulation partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman, said the UK model carried an advantage over the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. “Compared to MiCA in the EU, the UK benefits from just the one regulator looking at authorisations,” he said.

 He flagged overseas trading platforms as the most uncertain area: FCA guidance allows an overseas platform to serve UK customers through an authorised UK branch only where the home regulator has “comparable levels of regulatory protection”, and the FCA has not said which jurisdictions would qualify.

 David Reilly, who leads payments and retail banking work at reconciliation software firm AutoRek, said reconciliation and reporting are “where most firms’ real work starts now”.

 Matthijs Boon, chief partnership officer at Equals, said firms with strong compliance already embedded “should be well placed for authorisation”. Charleyne Biondi, a vice-president at Moody’s Ratings, said the compliance burden was “likely to favour larger, better-resourced firms”.

Stablecoins gain a second regulator

 The largest stablecoins face oversight from the Bank of England as well as the FCA. An issuer moves to joint regulation once HM Treasury recognises its coin as systemic, with the Bank leading on backing assets and the FCA on conduct.

 The Bank set out its rules for sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins in a separate policy statement in June 2026, dropping planned per-holder limits and cutting the share of reserves issuers must park as unremunerated deposits at the Bank. Fintechly has covered the joint stablecoin approach in detail separately.

 The authorisation window closes on 28 February 2027, ahead of the 25 October 2027 commencement date. Whether firms apply in time, and clear the assessment when they do, is the open question the regime now turns on. For the full picture of who needs authorisation and how the UK compares internationally, see our explainer on the UK cryptoasset regime, and for the case that most firms will struggle, our analysis of the authorisation failure risk.