The FCA, along with the local police, went to Exeter, Nottingham, and Sheffield to investigate places where people could exchange cash for cryptocurrencies. They say these places are illegal and could be used to hide money obtained through criminal activities.
The FCA, Financial Conduct Authority which is a group that makes sure people follow the rules when it comes to money in the UK, is still trying to stop people from running crypto ATMs that are against the law.
The FCA checked out places in Exeter, Nottingham, and Sheffield with the help of local police. The machines that let people turn regular money into cryptocurrency are risky because they could be used to hide money that was made from illegal activities. None of these machines were registered with the FCA, which is required by law. The FCA talked about this in a statement they released on Friday.
Therese Chambers, who is in charge of making sure people follow the rules when it comes to money, said that crypto ATMs that are not registered with the FCA are against the law. She also said that they will do something to stop these illegal activities.
The FCA is looking at what they found during their inspection, but they haven’t said yet what they will do next. They recently inspected places in Exeter, Nottingham, and Sheffield, but they also checked out other places in Leeds and East London in March.
There are 17 machines in the UK where people can buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, according to a website called CoinATMRadar. However, the FCA says that none of the 40 or so companies that are registered to sell cryptocurrencies are allowed to use these machines.
