The soaring price of Bitcoin has placed a very bright spotlight on cryptocurrency and its role in modern payments, finance and economics, but government approaches remain as fragmented as ever.
Bitcoin reached $100,000 last week, the highest valuation in the 15 year history of the world’s most widely held and traded cryptocurrency. Most observers agree that the election of Donald Trump as US president and the crypto-friendly policies that are expected to come with this change in government has been a key growth driver.
Even prior to Trump’s election win, US policymakers were making moves around cryptocurrency. In May 2024, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) with broad bi-partisan support, though Republicans were generally more in favour than Democrats.
The legislation’s core objectives were consumer protection, market strengthening and protecting digital asset customer-serving institutions. A pro-bill Representative described it as ensuring that “America leads the financial system of the future and remains a hub for technological innovation”.
Though President Joe Biden and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, Gary Gensler, were critical of the Bill, it remains in Congress, currently in the Senate. In other countries, industry representatives are calling for similar legislative progress.
“Regardless of the price of Bitcoin, it’s good to see the US trying to lead in crypto to promote much-needed legislation and regulation,” says Riccardo Tordera Ricchi, Director of Policy and Government Relations at The Payments Association (TPA), the UK’s payments trade body.
“The Payments Association has been advocating this for a long time in the UK. The UK government has not historically moved as quickly as needed to enable business to benefit from this technology fully, but it’s positive to see how things have now changed.”
Crypto across continents
The UK has, as TPA notes, been a bit slower than other jurisdictions with regulating and legislating on cryptocurrency. The previous Conservative government, under financial services fanatic Rishi Sunak in particular, did show a keenness to support digital assets in UK industry.
These ambitions were put on hold by the July general election, won by the incumbent Labour Party under PM Keir Starmer. Though Labour touched on some finance and technology topics in its manifesto, like Open Banking and AI, it did not mention crypto or digital assets – but it did eventually make some moves.
In September, the government introduced the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which if passed will protect digital assets like crypto and NFTs under UK property law. Meanwhile, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), while not under the direct influence of government policy, has introduced its own roadmap for regulation of crypto going into 2026.
“It’s a good sign to finally have the FCA having published last week a roadmap on the next steps for crypto regulation,” says Tordera Ricchi.
Regardless of Trump’s victory, Bitcoin and crypto in general has been enjoying a rebound after the market difficulties of 2022 and 2023, when confidence crashed following the collapse of the FTX platform and the subsequent conviction of its founder.
Despite Gary Gensler’s apparent distrust of cryptocurrency, the SEC has approved ETFs of both Bitcoin and Ethereum, the first and second most widely traded cryptocurrencies respectively. These developments contributed to Bitcoin’s growth even prior to the Trump win.
Against the backdrop of crypto’s growing prominence in public life, the UK has some catching up to do with other jurisdictions. The progression of FIT21 in the US Congress will likely only be buoyed when Donald Trump takes over the White House from crypto-sceptic Joe Biden in January.
Meanwhile, European crypto stakeholders are awaiting full implementation of MiCA regulations next year. Some have criticised MiCA as potentially impacting financial stability, but others like Robinhood and Revolut are anticipating a loosening of the EU crypto market which will enable new players to challenge Tether’s dominance in the market.
The Labour government has been vocal in wanting the UK to remain a leader in financial services and fintech. Crypto is undoubtedly now part of this ecosystem, and the government needs to catch up on the US, EU and other jurisdictions if it wants to realistically achieve these goals – though with all necessary consideration for money laundering and fraud, two of the biggest concerns which have dogged crypto since its foundation.
“What we need is clear government commitment to push this agenda forward and doing so in a way that complements contemporary business models,” says Tordera Ricchi.
“This is particularly true in terms of stablecoins, where our focus is as they are used as means of payments. We can’t ignore the role that new forms of money have played so far – and the role they are going to have going forward – or the UK is going to get left behind technologically.
“We need to ensure we have a world-leading regulatory framework to make this work in Britain, learning from the many mistakes made by the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) approach.”
