Apply for FCA authorisation for cryptoasset activities before the new regime starts

What changes and when

The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/102) were made on 4 February 2026. They bring seven cryptoasset activities inside the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). From 25 October 2027, you must hold FCA authorisation to carry on any of those activities in the UK, or for UK consumers, unless an exemption applies.

The FCA opens its application gateway on 30 September 2026 and the window it has set by direction runs to 28 February 2027. If you are registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset exchange provider or custodian wallet provider under the Money Laundering Regulations, that registration does not convert into FSMA authorisation. You must apply.

Check whether your activities are in scope

The regime covers qualifying cryptoassets: fungible, transferable cryptoassets that are not simply a record of value or contractual rights. Qualifying stablecoins are a subset. Tokenised securities and other cryptoassets that are already specified investments stay under the existing investment rules, though safeguarding them is caught by the new custody activity.

Seven activities become regulated: issuing a qualifying stablecoin in the UK, safeguarding qualifying cryptoassets (custody), operating a trading platform, dealing as principal, dealing as agent, arranging deals, and staking. Each has its own exclusions, so check the Regulated Activities Order article for each one. Activity that is only incidental to selling goods or supplying services, or to a professional practice, is excluded.

Whether you need UK authorisation turns on UK consumers, meaning individuals in the UK acting outside their trade, business or profession. An overseas firm that sells to UK consumers directly, or safeguards or stakes for them, is treated as carrying on the activity in the UK and needs authorisation. An overseas firm that serves only UK institutional customers, or whose UK consumer business goes through a UK-authorised trading platform or principal dealer, does not. The FCA's baseline expectation for an overseas firm that needs authorisation is a UK legal entity. The rules apply UK-wide.

Prepare and submit your application

You apply on the FCA's Connect system for Part 4A permission covering each activity you will carry on. The FCA reviews applications in order of receipt and expects to decide in-window applications before 25 October 2027. An application that lacks the minimum information is rejected without assessment, the fee is refunded, and you are treated as not having applied.

What happens after you apply

What you can do on 25 October 2027 depends on when you applied and where your application stands. If you applied in the window and the FCA has not yet decided, or has refused you but the decision is still open to review or appeal, the saving provision applies. You carry on as before, including taking on new customers, until the application is finally determined. The saving provision ends on 24 October 2029 whatever the state of your application.

If you applied in the window but were refused with no review pending, or you withdrew, or you applied after the window closed, only the transitional provision applies. You may perform contracts that pre-date the regime, you cannot take on new UK business, and you must notify the FCA and tell your counterparties that you are not authorised for the activity. The FCA can vary or cancel the exemption. The transitional provision also ends on 24 October 2029.

If you never applied, neither provision applies. You must run off your UK cryptoasset business before 25 October 2027. A newly established firm may apply at any time, but can only provide regulated cryptoasset services once the regime is live and it is authorised.

Once you are authorised, your MLR registration is replaced by a notification to the FCA. Every other Money Laundering Regulations duty continues.

Rules that apply now and continue

Some rules bind you now and carry on after the regime starts. Promotions of qualifying cryptoassets to UK consumers have been inside the financial promotion restriction since October 2023, with FCA rules in force from 8 October 2023. A promotion must be made or approved by an authorised person, or communicated by an MLR-registered cryptoasset business under its own exemption. That last route ends on 25 October 2027, and firms that rely on a section 21 approver to reach UK customers will then need their own authorisation.

The Travel Rule in the Money Laundering Regulations has applied to cryptoasset transfers since 1 September 2023. Every transfer must carry originator and beneficiary details, and transfers to or from a business outside the UK must carry enhanced details at or above a threshold set in the Regulations. Your other Money Laundering Regulations duties, such as customer due diligence, a nominated officer and suspicious activity reporting, continue throughout.

From 25 October 2027 authorised cryptoasset firms are subject to the FCA Handbook: the Consumer Duty, conduct of business rules, complaints handling with access to the Financial Ombudsman Service, systems and controls, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime in full, client assets rules and regulatory reporting. Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover is not extended to the new activities.

Penalties for getting it wrong, and the draft amendments

From 25 October 2027, carrying on a regulated cryptoasset activity without authorisation or an exemption breaches the general prohibition in section 19 of FSMA. That is a criminal offence under section 23, punishable by imprisonment or a fine, with a defence of all reasonable precautions and all due diligence. Communicating an unlawful promotion of qualifying cryptoassets is a separate offence under section 25 and already applies. From the same date, HM Treasury's explanatory memorandum says that offering a qualifying cryptoasset to the public without an exemption will also be an offence, and a market abuse regime applies to qualifying cryptoassets.

HM Treasury has laid the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 before Parliament. They are not law. If made, they would carve transfers and exchanges of UK-issued qualifying stablecoin out of dealing, arranging and the financial promotion restriction, but not lending and borrowing or exchanges for other qualifying cryptoassets. Do not plan your permissions around the draft until it is made.

If your firm is not yet registered under the Money Laundering Regulations, read the guide to registering a money service business or cryptoasset business for AML supervision first.