Even when the sun is shining, Londoners are still thinking about how cold “crypto winter” was.
Unfortunately for the future of digital financial assets in the United States, the spectacular failure of the FTX platform in November and the protracted prosecution of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried have discouraged lawmakers and regulators from the country.
That is not to say that development in the field is not quickening. Lord Hammond, a former British chancellor and current senior adviser at Copper, a London-based digital asset custody service, expects tokenized “real world” assets like debt, equities, and real estate to begin small-scale digital trading as early as next year.
This presents London with a chance but also a danger. The capital may not make the first move, but it might eventually overtake other major cities as the world’s financial hub.
But Lord Hammond says time is running out for the City. Economic Secretary John Glen, who reports to Rishi Sunak, told attendees at a worldwide event last year, “we — the UK — want to be in, and in on the ground floor.” Sunak has been a vocal supporter of the cryptocurrency space.
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But as the industry moves out of its “Wild West” phase, can the warm words be matched by timely construction of the regulatory and trading system needed to bring crypto trading to London?
If and when crypto trading becomes commonplace, the City cannot afford to be left out.
