UK Treasury rebuffs calls for crypto to be regulated as gambling

finextra.com:

The committee in May called into question Government plans to regulate consumer crypto trading as a financial service, arguing that this will create a ‘halo’ effect, leading consumers to believe this activity is safe and protected, when it is not. In presenting its conclusions, comittee chair Harriett Baldwin said the events of 2022 had highlighted the risks posed to consumers by the cryptoasset industry, "large parts of which remain a wild west".

"With no intrinsic value, huge price volatility and no discernible social good, consumer trading of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin more closely resembles gambling than a financial service, and should be regulated as such," she said. "By betting on these unbacked ‘tokens’, consumers should be aware that all their money could be lost." In its reponse, the Treasury said it "firmly disagrees" with the Committee’s recommendations, arguing that such an approach would risk misalignment with international standards and potentially create unclear and overlapping mandates between financial regulators and the Gambling Commission "Such an approach would run completely counter to globally agreed recommendations from international organisations and standard-setting bodies, including the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the G20 Financial Stability Board," the Treasury retorted.