A transatlantic government initiative to advance cooperation on crypto expects to miss its first deadline.
The UK-US Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future is deferring its 180-day report, originally slated for March, after delays from last year's US government shutdown, a US regulatory official said.
Delegates from the two governments met in London on 27- 28 Jan hoping to advance discussions set up during President Trump’s visit to the UK in September. One of the attendees was Sumeera Younis, Chief of Operations of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force.
Speaking on Thursday at City and Financial Global’s London Tokenization Summit, Younis said the Taskforce’s report is likely to be delayed because of the US federal government’s 43-day shutdown in October and November. As Democrats in Washington toy with triggering fresh disruption to suspend funding for the Department of Homeland Security, where the notorious ICE agency is based, Younis was reluctant to give a revised date for the report.
The crypto taskforce was set up amid the September 'state visit' during which the UK attempted to preserve its 'special relationship' with the US, a diplomatic union that the White House has regularly undermined during the past 12 months. A bilateral group of treasury officials and regulators was tasked with identifying options for collaborating on digital assets, wholesale markets innovation and links between capital markets.
Representatives of the US Treasury and the SEC, alongside their counterparts from the UK Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority and industry delegates attended this week’s talks.
Younis confirmed the task force has the common goal of providing clarity about digital assets for the investment community. Furthermore, both countries remain very keen to work together to maximize the opportunity of digital assets and tokenization, as well as to reduce cross-border capital market friction, she told the conference.
The topics were confirmed by someone else close to the process, who asked not to be named, referring to private discussions. That person added that there are “differences in approach” between the two countries.
The UK remains cautious, seeking to test all potential regulations in the sandbox environment to ensure thorough investor and consumer protection. Conversely, the US is forging ahead and is likely to make important moves before the end of 2026, the person said, while acknowledging the US approach does contain more risk.
The philosophy stateside seems to be that investors should decide what levels of exposure they are prepared to accept.
Asked about deadlines, a spokesperson for the UK Treasury told Sandmark it would not give a running commentary on the Taskforce’s work.
