<\/p>\n
Former UK Chancellor George Osbourne warned the current government is at risk of missing out on the crypto wave as they are lagging behind in the global race. Can the U.K. catch up?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to a recent report<\/a> from the Financial Times, former Chancellor George Osborne harshly criticized the government\u2019s cautious approach to cryptocurrencies. He believes the region is at risk of \u201cmissing out\u201d on the crypto wave that\u2019s sweeping the globe, much like how it was late to embrace the major financial reforms of the 1980s.<\/p>\n \u201cWe became the world\u2019s financial center because we weren\u2019t afraid of change,\u201d said Osborne as quoted by the Financial Times.<\/p>\n \u201cOn crypto and stablecoins, as on too many other things, the hard truth is this: we\u2019re being completely left behind. It\u2019s time to catch up,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n He said that blaming regulators for being overly cautious towards digital assets is just a \u201clame excuse.\u201d Therefore, he believes the U.K. should follow in the U.S\u2019 footsteps by establishing a crypto regulatory framework to accelerate the region\u2019s industry.<\/p>\n He pointed out that in terms of the global crypto race, the U.K. was at risk of falling behind compared to regions like the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi which have taken steps to accommodate crypto developments with regulations and government initiatives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Compared to the U.S. and Hong Kong, two regions that have recently launched regulatory frameworks boosting the stablecoin sector, the Bank of England has been more reluctant to embrace stablecoins.<\/p>\n Bank of England Governor, Andrew Bailey said in a previous report that the BOE remains unconvinced that it would utilize much of its resources into stablecoins, due to the lack of protection and guarantees offered by traditional bank deposits as well as the risk of them upstaging traditional fiat currencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere may well be a role for stablecoins going forward, but I don\u2019t see them as a substitute for commercial bank money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Moreover, the U.K. has yet to establish a legal crypto framework like the the EU has with its MiCA regulation. Although the U.K. published a crypto\u2011asset regulation consultation in February\u202f2023, as of August\u202f2025, it has still not tabled draft legislation or implemented a unified licensing regime.<\/p>\n While Euronext\u2011listed crypto exchange\u2011traded note or ETNs and spot\u2011Bitcoin ETFs have been available to EU and US retail investors since as early as 2018 and January\u202f2024 respectively, the UK only started consulting in mid\u20112025 on lifting its retail ban on cryptocurrency derivatives and ETNs. The implementation is planned for October\u202f8, 2025.<\/p>\nIs the U.K. really missing out on the crypto wave?<\/h2>\n