It has stated a variety of reasons for why the products cannot be “reliably valued” by retail consumers, such as financial crime, volatility and an inadequate understanding of crypto assets being the main ones. It was estimated that retail investors will save $53 million due to this ban. This is despite the FCA releasing a research stating that U.K. consumers have invested an estimated $2.6 million in crypto assets.
Although the main intention of this ban is to protect retail investors from the complexity of these products, the assumption that retail investors in the U.K. have an inadequate understanding of crypto assets might be incorrect. Jesse Spiro, global head of policy and regulatory affairs at Chainalysis — a blockchain analysis company — told Cointelegraph: “Given the amount of available information and market intelligence that is now regularly produced on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, there are many retail investors that have a high degree of technical expertise and knowledge.”