Financial Watchdog Conducts Sweeping Raids Targeting Unlicensed P2P Cryptocurrency Operations Across Britain
Britain's financial regulator has conducted enforcement actions at eight sites engaging in unauthorized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading, delivering immediate shutdown orders.
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has conducted enforcement raids targeting several locations believed to be conducting unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trading activities.
The regulator responsible for overseeing financial services and markets announced on Wednesday that it collaborated with HM Revenue & Customs alongside the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit to conduct inspections at eight separate locations associated with unlawful cryptocurrency trading operations. Authorities delivered immediate cease-and-desist notices at each site, compelling the operators to stop all activities without delay, while simultaneously collecting evidence for active criminal proceedings.
Unregistered peer-to-peer crypto traders operating in the UK are doing so illegally and pose a financial crime risk
Steve Smart, the FCA's executive director of enforcement and market oversight
Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading enables people to purchase and sell digital currencies in direct transactions, sidestepping traditional centralized exchange platforms. Within the United Kingdom, conducting such operations necessitates proper registration in accordance with anti-money laundering regulations. According to the FCA, there are presently no peer-to-peer cryptocurrency traders or platforms that have successfully registered with the regulatory body.
FCA expands crypto crackdown
These enforcement raids represent the FCA's inaugural operation specifically targeting P2P cryptocurrency trading activities, though they continue a pattern of regulatory enforcement measures against the digital asset sector. Prior enforcement initiatives have included criminal prosecutions connected to unauthorized crypto ATM operations and detentions associated with exchanges operating without proper licensing.
In recent weeks, law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and several other nations, including the United States and Canada, successfully froze assets worth millions of dollars connected to cryptocurrency fraud schemes through a synchronized international enforcement initiative designated as Operation Atlantic. This coordinated operation, which was executed during March, brought together various agencies including the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, the United States Secret Service, and law enforcement and securities regulatory bodies from Canada.
Law enforcement officials reported that the coordinated operation successfully identified in excess of 20,000 victims spread across the three participating countries and successfully secured more than $12 million in assets believed to represent criminal proceeds. Investigators additionally managed to trace over $45 million in supplementary stolen cryptocurrency assets connected to fraudulent networks.
These raids mark a shift under the incoming FSMA crypto regime, unregistered OTC desks are no longer an AML-registration gap, they're an unauthorised regulated activity, and enforcement will look more like traditional finance
Slav Demchuk, CEO at AMLBot.com
Demchuk further noted that unlicensed OTC brokerage operations represent one of the most persistent bottlenecks in illegal financial flows, including "Iran-linked evasion corridors where actors cut off from regulated exchanges use informal desks to move USDT and BTC in and out of fiat."
UK FCA pushes ahead with crypto rulebook
In the earlier part of this month, the FCA initiated a public consultation process regarding guidance for its forthcoming cryptocurrency regulatory framework, which is anticipated to become operational in 2027. The proposed guidance framework will address critical areas including stablecoins, digital asset trading platforms, custody services and staking operations.
Cryptocurrency companies are anticipated to gain the ability to submit authorization applications beginning in September 2026, with mandatory full compliance becoming effective upon the framework's complete implementation.