UK To Introduce New Law About Crypto And NFTs

The United Kingdom’s Law Commission has recently said that the UK should come up with a new category of private property law. According to the commission, the new law is meant to cater to digital assets including cryptos and nonfungible tokens.

The announcement comes after the European Union attempts to regulate the crypto asset industry via a Europe-wide regulation called MiCA. Analysts and experts believe that more regulations need to be introduced into the nascent space to enable it to mature and become a viable investment even for the institutions.

In recent years, many institutional investors have been skeptical about the digital assets sector due to its volatility and lack of many use cases in the physical world. Nonetheless, everything seems to be changing quickly with NFTs gaining many use cases, especially in the gaming and music industries.

A legal body within the UK seems to be encouraging the Parliament to reform rules and regulations to accommodate digital assets including crypto and NFTs.

What Would These New UK Laws Entail?

Apart from defining NFTs and crypto as personal property, the proposed legal reforms would enable those affected by crypto scams to seek legal action. The crypto-friendly reform comes in line with the UK’s ambition of becoming a global crypto hub.

It is crucial to note that the reforms only apply to Britain, this is since Northern Ireland and Scotland have their local legal commissions.

In April 2022, Rishi Sunak – then the UK finance minister who is now in the running to become the next Prime Minister – urged the Law Commission to review the UK’s current crypto regulations. That was done to accommodate digital assets including crypto and nonfungible tokens.

In the past week, financial regulators proposed that Parliament recognize stablecoins as a legal means of payment. Moreover, the consultation paper discussed how the current laws and regulations cannot get applied to digital assets. Based on the paper, digital assets have “many different features” and “unique qualities” that differentiate them from traditional assets.

The UK’s Position As A Crypto Hub

Notably, the UK is speedily becoming a crypto and NFT hub. Nonetheless, the FCA that regulates cryptocurrency in the UK, has not managed to create an entirely regulated landscape. Thus, based on the Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, Sarah Green, a massive regulatory infrastructure needs to be established to support the UK’s crypto space.