The UK government’s proposed cryptocurrency regulations aim to bring digital assets within the same regulatory perimeter as traditional financial products.
Yet amid broad political consensus on the need for clear rules, a key question divides lawmakers: are regulators moving fast enough and are they focused on the right priorities?
Mark Garnier, the Conservative party's shadow economic secretary to the treasury, is the official opposition's leading voice on crypto policy. He argues the UK needs to reverse its cautious approach if the sector is to fully open to traditional finance investors.
"Behind every fiat currency is a whole raft of regulations," Garnier said in an interview with Sandmark. "Crypto needs a similar framework, in particular so banks can provide their services and to cover anti-money laundering."
Industry figures agree. Barry Cook, interim proposition director at wealth manager Quilter, told Sandmark the government’s plans would introduce “new regulated activities and clear standards on transparency, consumer protection and operational resilience,” alongside rules on market abuse and disclosure. “For retail platforms, this could represent a turning point,” Cook said.
Asher Tan, the CEO and co-Founder of UK-based crypto exchange CoinJar, broadly concurs, advocating for a consensual approach to regulating digital assets: “Crypto should be a bipartisan issue. What’s at stake isn’t ideology, but how people fundamentally access and engage with digital assets in the modern economy,” he told Sandmark.
In the Westminster bubble, famed for its political theatre at a parliamentary site almost 1,000 years old, politicians are known for jeering and mocking each other. At times, they adopt a deeply personal approach to criticizing their foes across the benches.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself recently quipped in the main debating chamber that 7 Jan was a special day for the upstart Reform UK party, since it’s the day that Russians celebrate Christmas. He was hoping to embarrass its leader Nigel Farage after Reform’s former leader in Wales was jailed for taking bribes in exchange for supporting Kremlin goals.
Farage won five out of 650 seats at the 2024 UK General Election, rising to seven this week following defections from the Conservatives. Reform itself is under scrutiny for accepting cryptocurrency political donations, since no tailored rules exist for parties seeking to be funded by digital assets. It’s currently the most popular party on the 'right' of politics, having been 10 points clear of the Conservatives for much of 2025, according to pollster YouGov, though that gap seems to be narrowing.
Despite the rowdy arguments in the Parliament, Garnier said there is broad political consensus on the need for clear rules to give banks the confidence to provide services to crypto businesses, from start-ups to established firms, and for asset managers to invest.
However, he highlighted some underlying concerns among regulators about the fundamentals of crypto assets.
He identified one worry that’s never far from the surface: "What happens if you regulate it and it implodes?"
Companies are wary of the scams and scandals that have hampered confidence in crypto over the years, discouraging some governments from creating rules that would legitimize crypto trading. James Sullivan, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer of payment services company BCB Group, told Sandmark that the UK needs trust and stability, not only growth and speed in order to become a global crypto leader.
"The traditional finance approach, when implemented proportionally and with ongoing dialogue with the industry, offers the best foundation for a robust digital asset ecosystem that will attract long-term capital and innovation," Sullivan said.
The pace of progress underlines the point: regulations announced in December are not expected to take effect until October 2027.
Pressed for a difference in stance from the government’s, Garnier’s main point lies with the government’s area of focus.
He argues the regulatory debate has become too narrowly centred on crypto assets, rather than the broader potential of the underpinning distributed ledger technology (DLT). Encouraging and regulating DLT, he said, could help modernize UK financial markets, from share registers to digital gilts, improving efficiency, transparency and settlement speed.
"The City has a long history of innovation, going back several hundred years, and it can lead the way in the development of this technology," according to Garnier.
Lucy Rigby, the government minister in charge, has been very clear about the ambition: "We want the UK to be at the top of the list for crypto asset firms looking to grow," she said in December when launching the regulatory programme. She will next speak publicly on the matter at TOK26: the London Tokenisation Summit on 29 Jan.
Otherwise, Garnier will have to wait until the Conservatives are back in power, which may take a while if they can’t plug the flow of dissenters to Reform and win back public support in the face of populist alternatives.
