Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

Crypto trading should be treated like a type of gambling, influential MPs say

Crypto trading should be treated like a type of gambling, influential MPs say

The Treasury Committee made the recommendation while describing digital currencies as having "no intrinsic value and no useful social purpose".
An influential panel of MPs has called on the government to regulate consumer crypto trading and speculation as a type of gambling.

The cross-party Treasury Committee claimed digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether have "no intrinsic value and no useful social purpose" - and as well as consuming large amounts of energy, they are often used by criminals for scams.

It comes after the government announced proposals in February to regulate the crypto industry by bringing it under financial services law.

But MPs said a better approach would be to recognise how speculation in unbacked cryptoassets - like Bitcoin - "more closely resembles gambling than a financial service".

It recommended that safeguarding rules which oversee the likes of lotteries, betting firms and casinos should apply instead.

Around 10% of UK adults have speculated in cryptoassets, according to HM Revenue and Customs.

The committee's new report warned digital currencies are a "significant risk" due to "huge" price volatility, with the potential for customers to lose everything they invest.

It said there was evidence that addictions to cryptocurrency speculation were on the rise - and warned there are limited controls currently in place to protect vulnerable consumers.

MPs said they were concerned that bringing the industry under financial service regulation "will create a 'halo' effect that leads consumers to believe that this activity is safer than it is, or protected when it is not".

"We therefore strongly recommend that the government regulates retail trading and investment activity in unbacked cryptoassets as gambling rather than as a financial service, consistent with its stated principle of 'same risk, same regulatory outcome,'" the report added.

A 'Wild West' industry

It comes after a 2018 report by the committee described the cryptocurrency industry as a "Wild West" - with MPs saying nothing in their subsequent enquiries had moved them to alter that verdict.

Following the new report, committee chair, Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin, said: "Effective regulation is clearly needed to protect consumers from harm, as well as to support productive innovation in the UK's financial services industry.

"However, 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."

The MPs said they still felt there was potential in the technology - such as by improving the efficiency and costs of making payments - and advised the government to take a "balanced approach" in supporting innovation.

The committee added it was separately considering the potential role of digital currencies backed by central banks.

Meanwhile its report also criticised the government's attempt in April 2022 to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) - a type of cryptocurrency asset - through the Royal Mint. The plan was dropped earlier this year following a review.

MPs said the government "should seek to avoid expending public resources on supporting cryptoasset activities without a clear, beneficial use case".

Crypto 'offers opportunities'

It comes as the government considers responses to a consultation into its regulation proposals.

A Treasury spokesperson indicated ministers would likely reject the committee's recommendation.

They told Sky News: "Risks posed by crypto are typical of those that exist in traditional financial services and it's financial services regulation - rather than gambling regulation - that has the track record in mitigating them.

"Crypto offers opportunities but we are taking an agile approach to robustly regulating the market, addressing the most pressing risks first in a way that promotes innovation."

The report comes amid growing pressure on governments around the world to better regulate the industry, heightened by the sudden bankruptcy of crypto platform FTX in November.

Some 80,000 UK-based customers were impacted by the collapse, and one British investor was left with a £1m hole in his finances.

The European Union this week approved tougher cryptoasset rules - including new powers to ban exchanges that fail to protect consumers.

The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), whose members include regulators in the US and UK, said it will also soon announce proposals for the first ever set of global rules covering crypto trading.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
×