The UK’s finance regulators order a removal of the cryptocurrency ATMs

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning for unregulated cryptocurrency automatic teller machines (ATM) in the UK to be shut down and removed. The financial regulator that manages the conduct of more than fifty thousand finance businesses and markets in the UK, rejected the companies applied for ‘cryptoasset’ exchange providers license. The FCA stated that companies did not meet the requirements needed for the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) regime.

This action from FCA comes after the UK Upper Tribunal’s decision from February 1st in which the private firm Gidiplus appealed the FCA decision not to issue them a license for crypto asset exchange providers. The court dismissed the appeal of Gidiplus.

Therefore, the FCA ordered firms which are behind the ATM machines in the London, Oxford and Manchester metropolitan area, but in the whole UK to shut them down.

In the statement from FCA they point out the consumer protection issue related to cryptocurrency and digital assets: ‘We regularly warn consumers that cryptoassets are unregulated and high-risk which means people are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong, so people should be prepared to lose all their money if they choose to invest in them’