PayPal, the global payments giant, has secured approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide cryptocurrency services in the United Kingdom. Official FCA data confirms that PayPal has been registered to offer specific "crypto asset activities" in the UK, effective from October 31, 2023.
However, the FCA has placed certain restrictions and requirements on the financial services activities that PayPal can engage in. These include halting the onboarding of new customers and limiting certain functions, such as buying and selling cryptocurrencies, exclusively to existing customers.
The FCA register also specifies that PayPal cannot expand its current offerings related to crypto assets, and this encompasses a range of activities, such as cryptocurrency trading services, participation in initial coin offerings, staking, peer-to-peer trading, and decentralized finance activities like lending and borrowing.
This approval makes PayPal the fourth company to receive FCA registration for cryptocurrency services in 2023, following Interactive Brokers, Bitstamp, and Komainu. The news comes on the heels of PayPal's brief suspension of its UK customers' ability to purchase cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in early October. The company had announced its intentions to adapt and comply with the UK's evolving regulatory landscape earlier in August.
The UK has established itself as a prominent cryptocurrency market. A report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis in October 2023 revealed that the UK is the leading cryptocurrency market in Central, Northern, and Western Europe, based on raw transaction volume. Furthermore, a study conducted by cryptocurrency tax platform Recap named London as the world's premier city for cryptocurrency businesses in February 2023.
