Lord Philip Hammond is not angry. He’s just “disappointed”. Or at least, that’s how he feels about the UK’s progress in regulating cryptocurrency.
Speaks exclusively to Financial newsthe former chancellor-turned-crypto-enthusiast criticized the government for failing so far to make Britain a crypto leader, as the EU presses ahead with plans for a new rulebook.
Rishi Sunak was chancellor when the UK government said in April that it wanted to make the UK a global tech hub for cryptoassets. But some firms have voiced concerns that Britain’s recent chaotic political climate combined with staff shortages at the Financial Conduct Authority have hampered the process.
Hammond said: “I’m a bit disappointed that the UK is as far behind as it is because I think the UK not only has the ability and the experience to be quite good at exploiting regulatory opportunities…but clearly post-Brexit is thinking our future as a financial center and we also have the burning platform that should give us the motivation to go ahead and do this.”
Listen to the entire podcast here.
Breaking: New crypto bridge alert
It was only a matter of time before Boris Johnson became a crypto bro, right?
The former prime minister has been unveiled as keynote speaker for this year’s International Symposium on Blockchain Advancements in Singapore
The event will take place on December 2, and will also feature Dick Cheney, the former vice president of the United States, say the organizers.
Because why not, right?
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State your intentions
State Street’s head of digital assets Nadine Chakar is leaving her role, in a setback for the world’s second-largest custodian bank as rivals press ahead with blockchain strategies.
Chakar, who recently told United Nations in an interview that State Street was going “super gung ho” on tokenization — converting assets into digital form on the blockchain — declined to comment on where she’s headed next.
State Street has between 400 and 450 people on its digital assets team, one of the largest in the traditional financial world, but risks losing ground to other banks if it does not replace Chakar quickly.
Bank of New York Mellon said on October 11 that it would begin accepting clients’ cryptocurrencies, becoming the first major US player to protect digital assets alongside traditional investments on the same platform.
News from around the web
Mainland China has been famously anti-crypto for some time – but Hong Kong is now set to embrace it. The territory this week announced a public consultation on giving retail investors access to digital assets.
One of the main concerns of many crypto-skeptics is that it can be used as payment for illegal activities. Well, it has been given more weight, after the Internet Watch Foundation found that the number of websites accepting crypto as payment for child sexual abuse material has more than doubled every year since 2018, with the number now at more than 1,000, per Financial Times.
Elon Musk finally walked into the Twitter offices on Nov. 28 and surveyed his new kingdom, striking fear into the hearts of tweet-obsessed media types the world over. Part of his plans is reportedly to bring in a whole host of new blockchain-enabled features for the platform. Bloomberg has the low one below.
It’s a Dogg eat Dogg world out there…
Musicians like Snoop Dogg, Nas and Kings of Leon have been invested in crypto for some time. But what about the rest of the music industry?
It turns out that artist managers, label heads and promoters are now following “Tha Doggfather” into cryptoland and establishing their own enterprises.
United Nations spoke to Wave Financial co-founder – and former artist manager – Les Borsai, who said that even a dramatic market crash that slashed coin values and jobs across the sector in recent months had left him unaffected by the “crazies” of the music industry.
“You just don’t get that kind of trouble in finance,” he says. “It’s like a vacation.”
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Alex Daniel
