At the Innovate Finance Global Summit on Monday, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen announced steps the Government is taking to regulate cryptocurencies.

In Brief: 

He also outlined a number of measures the Government is taking to encourage innovation in FinTech, including the first meeting of the CFIT (Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology) steering committee – a key recommendation of the Kalifa Review.

The EST said certain stablecoins will be brought under the UK’s legislative framework

He announced that the Chancellor has asked the Royal Mint to create its own NFT.

What does this mean? 

Glen made a host of announcements to kick off UK FinTech week – far too many for our “in brief” format to encompass – but a key point made was that the Government is keen to regulate the use of distributed ledger technology but not so heavily that innovation is quashed, and that it is the task of the FinTech industry to support and offer feedback through this process. 

The creation of an NFT, while of course a visual celebration of technology, will also be a way for the Government to “test out” such technology as it seeks to understand how DLT works and use this knowledge to bring in proper legislation.