Which of our politicians is actually involved in crypto?

of Sean KiernanCEO of Greengage

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been vocal about his desire to establish the UK as the world’s hub for crypto and digital asset technology and investment.

“It is my ambition to make the UK a global hub for crypto-asset technology and the measures we have outlined today will help ensure that firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country”, he said in a recent statement.

In support of this plan, the government has confirmed its recognition of stablecoins as a valid form of payment, saying it “will explore ways to improve the competitiveness of the UK system to encourage further development of the cryptoasset market”.

But who in the Storting is talking and walking the talk?

In January of this year, crypto tax firm Recap released research that named London the “most crypto-ready city” based on a variety of criteria, including the number of cryptocurrency businesses and research and development spending, noting that it is already home to over 800 crypto-based companies.

More recently, we saw the official opening ceremony for the newly established Center for Finance, Innovation, and Technology (CFIT) – a private sector initiative funded by HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation and chaired by Ezechi Britton MBE.

So far, everything sounds hugely promising. However, there is often a gap between ambition and achievement; between what politicians say and what they do.

This sentiment was the impetus for a piece of research commissioned by Greengage.

Our researchers looked at the number of times parliamentarians in both houses have referred to “crypto”, “digital” “blockchain” and other related keywords, and whether these references were supportive or not.

It is perhaps not surprising that the absolute number of mentions has increased during the period reviewed. Just a few years ago, this topic was not discussed at all outside of a limited group of technology pioneers.

Cryptocurrency first really landed in the collective consciousness in 2018, not long after parliamentary focus was stifled by the global pandemic, followed by the ongoing war in Ukraine and its wider impact.

Headlines are important – thus FTX failed at the end of last year saw an increase in parliamentary mentions of crypto and associated terms. No doubt if the data were updated today it would show a new peak around the recent collapse of SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) and its impact on crypto players.

Nevertheless, if we go back to the research on ‘digital parliamentarians’ as it stands, in 2022 there were more mentions of crypto and related words than in the previous four years combined and more mentions of a larger number of parliamentarians.

This group includes some prominent exponents and advocates, including MPs Andrew Griffith, John Glen, Eddie Hughes and Adam Afriyie, as well as Lords Holmes, Agnew and Wei. But it’s not just the Tories who are keen (figures may be skewed in their favor simply because there are more of them in government, which equates to more ‘floor time’).

Other notable and vocal advocates – defined solely by the number of times they made positive or neutral comments in the Houses of Parliament – ​​include MPs Jim Shannon (DUP), Dr Lisa Cameron (SNP) and Martin Docherty-Hughes (SNP).

Looking at the data, there is certainly a positive shift in the dialogue from looking solely at speculative cryptocurrency investments to a broader recognition of the potential benefits of technologies to support individual businesses and industries.

This is not scientific research and analysis, just a snapshot of sentiment based on recorded parliamentary mentions. It nevertheless provides a useful anecdotal barometer of prevailing sentiment, and may even provide some insight into the gap between government ambition and parliamentary action in respect of the industry as a whole.

See the Greengage research here: What are our MPs really saying about crypto and digital assets?

Sean Kiernan is CEO of Greengage, a pioneer in digital merchant banking.