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The United Kingdom's financial regulatory body has doubled the number of cryptocurrency activities it is monitoring on unauthorized transactions, the Telegraph newspaper reported on November 26th.
Responding to a request for freedom of information from the publication, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that at the time it was considering 50 entities that "suspected" were offering financial services without its permission.
The number is more than double what FCA reported in May of this year, and it comes at a time when the UK is trying to take a more orderly approach to its domestic cryptocurrency sector.
While not mentioning the answer itself, the Telegraph referred to an accountant who suggested that the continuing decline in cryptocurrency prices indirectly exerted pressures on the FCA.
"The huge sums lost due to the cryptocurrencies that come down this year will cause a wave of complaints to the FCA," said Moore Stephens' partner Andrew Jacobs, adding:
"Now that prices have plummeted, fraud is likely to be exposed, with increased pressure from the FCA to ensure that this market can operate in a transparent and fair manner."
As Cointelegraph recently reported, the regulator has signaled its intention to adopt an ambiguous approach to cryptocurrency as it appears in the financial services sector.
This includes discussing the ban on certain types of financial products, which some fear may extend to instruments such as Bitcoin futures, which already operate successfully elsewhere.
Executive Director of FCA Strategy and Competition Christopher Woolard said in a speech last week:
"We are concerned that retail consumers sell complex, volatile and often leveraged derivative products based on exchange tokens with underlying market integrity issues."
The approach has already received indignation from some parts, describing it as a "blunt instrumental approach".
However, the fall in crypto prices has also eased pressure on the UK financial regulator to introduce new and hasty rules for the sector, Cointelegraph reported last week.
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