HM Treasury has published a draft statutory instrument and policy note proposing targeted changes to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026, which establish a UK regulatory regime for cryptoassets and are due to come into force in October 2027. The proposals aim to provide greater certainty for firms offering payment services using UK-issued qualifying stablecoins and to remove barriers for certain other cryptoasset use cases, while keeping key activities under Financial Conduct Authority authorisation and supervision. The draft would carve out transactions involving a qualifying stablecoin issued in the UK by an authorised issuer (UK-issued qualifying stablecoin) from the new regulated activities of dealing as principal, dealing as agent and arranging deals, to avoid stablecoin payments firms needing cryptoasset dealing and arranging permissions ahead of broader payments services reforms. Lending and borrowing involving UK-issued qualifying stablecoins would remain within the dealing perimeter, and the instrument would clarify that the temporary settlement exclusion from cryptoasset safeguarding applies only where safeguarding is ancillary to dealing or arranging, so it does not apply to holding stablecoins in the course of providing payments services. Consequential proposals would align the financial promotions regime by exempting stablecoin-only transactions (except lending and borrowing) and adding “issuing a qualifying stablecoin” as a controlled activity, bring forward the carve-out treating stablecoin backing assets as neither a collective investment scheme nor an alternative investment fund, and note that some firms may still need registration under the FCA’s Money Laundering Regulations Gateway. Additional measures include excluding certain proprietary trading from dealing as principal where no client service is provided, and extending an existing central securities depository nominee-company exemption to cryptoasset safeguarding for specified investment cryptoassets. HM Treasury will engage with industry over the coming weeks and is seeking written feedback by 22 May 2026. A further consultation on wider payments services reforms is flagged, including proposals to bring stablecoin-based payments into the regulated payments perimeter and to consider moving safeguarding conducted in payment services from the cryptoassets regime into the payments regime.
HM Treasury 2026-04-21
HM Treasury publishes draft amendments to UK cryptoassets regulations to ease UK-issued stablecoin payments and adjust dealing and safeguarding scope
HM Treasury has published a draft statutory instrument and policy note proposing targeted amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 to give greater certainty to firms using UK-issued qualifying stablecoins for payment services while keeping key activities under Financial Conduct Authority authorisation and supervision. The draft would carve out most transactions in UK-issued qualifying stablecoins from new dealing and arranging activities, adjust the financial promotions and safeguarding perimeters, and clarify that some firms may still require registration under the Money Laundering Regulations Gateway.