If you run a crypto company and want to keep operating in the U.K., you now have five months to get your application in. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) opened its “authorization gateway” on Wednesday, and firms have until the end of February 2027 to register.
Five months is a short window for a regime that took years to arrive. The legislative groundwork goes back to 2022.
Britain spent years behind the EU
For a long time, the U.K. looked slow. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Asset (MiCA) Regulation came into force in June 2023, around the same time the relevant U.K. Act of Parliament was only just becoming law.
Things started moving late last year. That’s when regulators announced that the FCA’s framework would take effect in October 2027, with a licensing application window opening before that date.
That window is now open. And the timeline is tight.
Some firms already have a head start
Not every applicant is starting from zero. Companies that already hold registration under the FCA’s existing regime, which mainly focused on anti-money laundering, may find that much of the heavy lifting is already done. In theory, at least.
More than 60 companies fall into that group. Zumo is one of them. The Edinburgh-based crypto infrastructure platform won its registration in 2021.
An operator built its own rulebook map
Zumo has built what it calls a “U.K Cryptoasset Regulation Tracker.” It tells firms what the rules will require of them and maps out the timelines for regulatory milestones.
The company’s pitch is that it’s an operator, not an adviser. “Everyone else publishing a traceker is a law firm or consultancy. We’re developing ours as industry operators,” Nick Jones, founder and CEO of Zumo, said in an emailed announcement on Wednesday.
Jones said the work went down to the smallest details. “Building it has meant reading the regime rules right down to the level of every individual obligation, mapping each one to the regulated activity it attaches to, and keeping that mapping current as further papers land.”
The last part of that quote matters most. The FCA is still publishing papers, so the rules firms are applying under can still change while the window is open.
If your company is one of the more than 60 that already registered under the anti-money laundering regime, don’t assume that registration covers you. Use it as a starting point, compare it against the new obligations and file well before February 2027. October 2027 won’t move just because your paperwork ran late.
