The former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and current U.K. Member of Parliament (M.P.) Matt Hancock urged the House of Commons to make England the “home” of crypto. “These innovations have the potential to disrupt finance, just as social media has disrupted communication, or online shopping has changed retail,” said Matt Hancock.
Hancock has served as an M.P. for West Suffolk since 2010 but stood down from his role as the Health Secretary in mid-2021 following the controversy surrounding COVID breaches tied to an alleged extramarital affair. Which is to say his endorsement, while welcomed by the industry, may not hold as much cachet as it once did.
Following up on his speech at the House of Commons on Jan. 27, Hancock emphasized the disruptive potential of crypto and fintech on Twitter, noting that: “The U.K. can be the home of innovations like FinTech and Cryptocurrency. Done right, we can increase transparency and lead in new world-changing technology.”
During his speech, he pointed to the benefits of crypto and fintech adoption in terms of economic stimulation and even financial crime reduction as he urged the government to “ensure” it develops progressive policy in these areas.
“[Fintech and Crypto] can not only be an economic driver, but also help cut fraud and financial crime because of the transparency that it brings,” he said, adding that “these innovations have the potential to disrupt finance, just as social media has disrupted communication, or online shopping has changed retail.”
Hancock’s comments come just a couple of weeks after several M.P.s and members of the House of Lords banded together to launch the Crypto and Digital Assets Group, which aims to ensure that the sector’s forthcoming regulation supports innovation opposed to stifling it.
The United Kingdom was actively looking to regulate the crypto market and had proposed many new policies to bring various crypto markets under the rule of law. However, among the various proposed suggestions, what turned many heads is the request to remove blockchain, and distributed ledger technology (DLT) references from the definition of crypto assets. “BRITAIN SETS OUT PLANS FOR REGULATING CRYPTO ASSETS, PROPOSES TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO BLOCKCHAIN FROM THE DEFINITION OF CRYPTO-ASSETS”
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Many crypto proponents believed the removal of references to blockchain and DLT, as proposed by the committee, could endanger the decentralized nature of the crypto market. For example, Chinese CBDC e-CNY or digital yuan was based on blockchain technology. However, it’s more of a private blockchain and highly centralized, controlled by the government. The British government seemed to be following a similar path with a definition change.
The Crypto and Digital Assets Group are chaired by Scottish National Party MP Lisa Cameron, who noted around the time of the group’s launch that, “We are at a crucial time for the sector as global policymakers are also now reviewing their approach to crypto and how it should be regulated.”
“We are at a crucial time for the sector as global policymakers are also now reviewing their approach to crypto and how it should be regulated.”
Earlier this week, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond stated that it was “frankly quite shocking” that the U.K. had fallen behind the European Union in providing clear regulation over the crypto sector.
Hammond warned that if the government fails to catch up in 2022 and end up “manifestly behind the curve” next year, top U.K. based crypto and blockchain tech firms will look to shift headquarters over to countries with friendlier stances on cryptos such as Germany and Switzerland, along with Monaco in France.
