Member

Until this statutory instrument, the focus of the regulation of crypto assets—the Minister was very clear about this—has been on anti-money laundering, against financial crime and against false prospectuses. Can the Government give us some assurance that none of the current protections—many of us already regard them as very weak, because the London laundromat is churning away quite happily despite all the anti-money laundering provisions—will be weakened from where they are today, at least? We all know that part of the reason why Russia is evading sanctions so successfully is that it is basically operating in the crypto world. That translates to fiat in places—many people believe that those places include Switzerland—and ends up in the London market. Any further weakening of the regime that attempts to contain that would, I think, be extremely worrying.