FCA consults on Perimeter Guidance for the UK’s new cryptoassets regime

The framework for the new cryptoasset regime is contained in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026. The Cryptoassets Regulations set out which types of cryptoasset will be regulated, which crypto-related activities will require authorisation from the FCA and what exemptions apply.

The FCA is now consulting on adding a new chapter to its existing Perimeter Guidance Manual, which will provide more detail around the scope of the regime and which will set out the FCA’s views on certain issues arising out of the legislative provisions.

The scope of much of the new regime for cryptoassets is set out in the legislation itself and is already well known. However, the CP provides an additional level of detail and answers some of the questions that remained outstanding from the legislation itself.

The main points to note are as follows:

1. Territorial scope

A key question regarding the scope of the new regime has been to what extent an overseas person – i.e. someone who does not have a place of business in the UK – will be caught by the new regime.

The Cryptoassets Regulations make clear that a person who is involved in the sale of a qualifying cryptoasset to a UK “consumer” – that is, an individual who is acting other than in scope of a trade, business or profession – will be within the regulatory perimeter and will require authorisation. This will be the case regardless of whether that person is based in the UK or not. In the CP, the FCA reiterates this approach and provides some examples of how the relevant exemptions from that approach will work.

What is less clear from the Cryptoassets Regulations is the position for an overseas person who is dealing with someone in the UK who is not a consumer. The new cryptoasset regime does not benefit from the overseas persons exclusion (OPE), which overseas persons can usually rely on when doing business with UK institutional investors in relation to traditional investments such as securities and derivatives.

In the CP, the FCA says:

• Where an overseas person enters into a transaction with a UK authorised person who has an FCA permission for “dealing in qualifying cryptoassets as principal”, and the authorised person is acting on its own account or on behalf of persons other than consumers, the overseas person will not be regarded as carrying on the activity of dealing in qualifying cryptoassets (as principal or agent) in the UK.
• A person who operates a non-UK cryptoasset trading platform that is not available to UK consumers will not be carrying on a regulated activity.

These are helpful clarifications for overseas persons in those particular situations – but there still remain some uncertainties for overseas persons in other situations where they are interacting with non-consumers in the UK.

2. New specified investments

The CP includes additional draft guidance around the definition of “qualifying cryptoasset”, including in relation to:

• a cryptoasset being regarded as transferable when it confers transferable rights. The draft guidance says that if rights can be transferred through the burning of one token and its replacement with a newly minted token, that is capable of being transferable; and
• whether a cryptoasset would be regarded as being “solely a record” of value or contractual rights (which would take it outside the regulatory perimeter).

3. New activities

The CP contains detailed draft guidance regarding the new regulated cryptoasset activities, including the following:

• Safeguarding

The draft guidance confirms that new “safeguarding” activity will focus not on who owns the asset but who controls it. The new activity may be carried on regardless of whether the cryptoasset is owned by the customer or the firm, provided it is done on behalf of another person and the firm has the requisite degree of control over the cryptoasset. This could include a situation where a customer has a right against the firm for the return of the cryptoasset but does not own it themselves.

There is some additional guidance on what “control” means, including in relation to the question of whether “self-custody” is caught by the new regime. The FCA also offers timelines regarding the exclusion for temporary settlement arrangements.

• “Intermediary activities”

The FCA uses this term to cover the regulated activities of dealing (as principal or agent) and arranging deals in relation to qualifying cryptoassets. The draft guidance for these activities largely mirrors that for the equivalent activities for traditional investments (e.g. shares and bonds), but there are some additional points of detail, particularly regarding what activities may amount to the regulated activity of arranging. According to the draft guidance, wrapping and bridging services (for example) are capable of amounting to regulated activities.

• Issuing qualifying stablecoin

The CP contains further guidance on when issuing a qualifying stablecoin is regarded as carried on in the UK and what it means to ‘issue’ for the purposes of this new regulated cryptoasset activity, including if you carry on just one element of the issuing activity.

• Arranging staking

The FCA says that merely introducing someone to a staking service will not amount to the regulated activity of “arranging deals”. The guidance contains examples of activities that will be considered to be in scope.

• Cryptoasset lending and cryptoasset borrowing

These are not standalone regulated cryptoasset activities, but the draft FCA guidance nevertheless contains a separate section setting out which other regulated cryptoassets are likely to be involved.

A recurrent theme in the new guidance is the question of whether someone who provides technical services, software or functionality is carrying on a regulated activity. For the new regulated activity of “arranging staking”, there is an exclusion for someone who provides “technical services”, but there is no equivalent for the other new regulated activities. The draft guidance in the CP contains some helpful statements of the FCA’s position, which will help firms understand which activities of this nature are likely to be caught by the new regime.

4. Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

In common with the Cryptoassets Regulations, the draft guidance says little specifically to in relation to DeFi, other than to say that the fact that an arrangement involves smart contracts, public blockchains or some elements of decentralisation does not mean that the arrangement is outside the regulatory perimeter. Each person engaged in such activities will need to consider their position under the new regime.

As part of the press release for the CP, the FCA has announced that it will consult separately on DeFi guidance later this year.

5. Interaction with the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs)

A section of the new draft guidance deals with the relationship between the new regulatory regime for cryptoassets and the MLRs. There will be some firms who are registered under the MLRs in relation to cryptoasset activities but may now need to seek full FCA authorisation in respect of those activities. There CP contains draft guidance on when firms will be required to do that. The FCA also highlights that some of the concepts under the MLRs are different to those under the new crypto regime, so that firms can take this into account when considering their position.

The deadline for feedback on the draft guidance in the CP is 3 June 2026.

The FCA says that the final guidance will be published in September 2026 - with the FCA application window for cryptoasset activities opening on 30 September 2026.