When the FCA consulted on these rules last year, respondents largely disagreed with the proposals including the regulator’s intention to treat crypto as a high risk investment and to block new investors from receiving non-real-time promotion offers , the report said. The FCA will proceed with these measures nonetheless, it added.
The proposed guidance says crypto firms should carry out “adequate due diligence and have sufficient evidence of the underlying crypto asset to ensure the financial promotion is fair, clear and not misleading.” The new rules on promotions have been put forward because estimated crypto ownership in the U.K. doubled from 2021 to 2022 with 10% of 2,000 people surveyed by the regulator stating that they own crypto, according to a separate report published by the FCA.