Bank of England Governor Says Mainstream Crypto Integration Is Slowing Down

The mainstream integration of cryptocurrency is getting sluggish, Andrew Bailey, Bank of England governor, said Wednesday (Jan. 10).

Speaking to U.K. Parliament’s Treasury Committee, Bailey said regulators need to “keep a very close eye” on the sector, but noted that the crypto’s integration into mainstream finance has not “kept the momentum,” according to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg.

“My own sense is that it’s not taking off as what I might call a core financial service,” Bailey said, according to the report. “For instance, using bitcoin as a payments method is pretty inefficient.” 

His remarks come as crypto platforms introduce new policies to meet new regulations from the U.K. Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini have implemented risk assessments and finance tests for their U.K. users, PYMNTS reported last week. 

The measures were enacted to satisfy new regulations set by the government, which require crypto companies to inform users about the risks of trading cryptocurrencies and to advertise their services responsibly. 

“Starting Monday (Jan. 8), users of these exchanges will be required to complete a declaration about their investor profile and respond to a questionnaire related to financial services and regulations,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “The declaration will ask users to identify themselves as either high net worth individuals or restricted investors, based on specific criteria.”

In October, the U.K. announced its intention to regulate the cryptocurrency market and “bring a number of cryptoasset activities into the regulatory perimeter for financial services for the first time,” the U.K. Treasury said at the time. 

As PYMNTS reported, the government plans to introduce legislation this year to put the changes into effect. 

At the same time, the U.K. announced plans to bring fiat-backed stablecoins under the purview of the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), in order to “minimize potential for customer harm and mitigate the conduct, prudential, and financial stability risks arising from those stablecoins, particularly when used for payments,” the government said at the time.