FCA leads raids on London crypto traders

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has moved from warnings to raids, sending officers to eight London sites tied to suspected illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading on April 22. (fca.org.uk, aol.com) The Financial Conduct Authority said it carried out the operation with HM Revenue & Customs and police under the UK’s money-laundering rules, and issued cease-and-desist letters at each address. The regulator said material gathered in the inspections is now feeding several criminal investigations. (aol.com, srnnews.com) Peer-to-peer crypto trading means buyers and sellers deal directly with each other instead of using a centralized exchange. In the UK, that activity falls inside the Financial Conduct Authority’s anti-money-laundering registration regime when it is carried on as a business. (fca.org.uk) The regulator says there are currently no Financial Conduct Authority-registered peer-to-peer crypto traders or platforms operating in the UK. That means any business offering that service from Britain is already outside the registration system the watchdog uses for anti-money-laundering checks. (fca.org.uk, srnnews.com) The timing matters because the UK is still in a split system for crypto oversight. The Financial Conduct Authority said on April 15 that crypto remains largely unregulated until October 2027 except for financial promotions and financial-crime rules, with applications for the broader regime opening on September 30, 2026. (fca.org.uk, fca.org.uk) That leaves anti-money-laundering registration as one of the main tools the watchdog can use right now against operators it says are handling crypto trades without checks on customers or funds. The Financial Conduct Authority says registration is a legal requirement, not a badge of approval. (fca.org.uk) The agency has been building toward this. In June 2024, it worked with the Metropolitan Police to arrest two people suspected of running an illegal cryptoasset exchange, and in July 2025 it said seven crypto ATMs were seized and two people were arrested in southwest London. (fca.org.uk, fca.org.uk) Lawyers and industry advisers expect more of the same. Imogen Makin of WilmerHale told Reuters the scale of the April 22 operation showed the Financial Conduct Authority was acting on its crypto enforcement priorities, and said similar crackdowns were likely as the watchdog keeps its focus on financial-crime risks. (srnnews.com) For traders in London, the message from this week’s sweep is practical rather than rhetorical: if a crypto business is taking customers without Financial Conduct Authority registration, the regulator is now showing up at the door. (aol.com, fca.org.uk)