Former FCA official says U.K. crypto ambitions face execution gap

Isadora Arredondo, a former U.K. Financial Conduct Authority official now serving as vice president of global policy at Hedera, said Britain’s crypto ambitions have been slowed by a gap between policy design and execution. Arredondo worked at the FCA from 2018 to 2021 during Brexit and early crypto policy development.

She said the regulator’s focus shifted first to rewriting rules after the U.K. left the European Union, then to managing the economic effects of COVID-19. "The COVID crisis hits, and crypto goes from a perimeter issue to a back-door issue," Arredondo said.

For large institutions, the regulator launched initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox and engaged directly with firms exploring tokenization. For startups and retail-focused companies, the U.K. has applied existing authorization rules rather than a dedicated framework like the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation.

Arredondo said this has resulted in longer review processes involving multiple teams. U.K. crypto regulations are scheduled to take effect in October 2027.

Outlook on digital money Arredondo said the next phase of digital money will require greater interoperability among blockchains, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies. She pointed to the EU as an example of a jurisdiction allowing multiple forms of digital money under one framework.

She also said the increasing participation of banks and asset managers shows that core crypto concepts are being integrated into mainstream finance rather than displaced.