Two arrests have been made in connection with the running of a crypto exchange worth £1 billion.

The FCA, in co-operation with the Metropolitan Police, inspected the offices associated with the suspect. Police searches of two residential London properties led to the seizure of several digital devices.

Both suspects were interviewed under caution by the FCA and released on bail. The authority’s investigation into the case is ongoing.

“The FCA has an important role to play in keeping dirty money out of the UK financial system. These arrests show we will do everything in our power to stop crypto firms from operating illegally in the UK,” Therese Chambers, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, FCA, said.

Since January 2021, cryptoasset businesses providing certain cryptoasset services in the UK must be registered with the FCA under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs).

The FCA has a Warning List of nearly 14,000 firms and warns investors that dealing with them means no protection under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Following the enactment of the Financial Promotions Regime in October 2023, the FCA allowed unregulated overseas firms like Binance to promote their services in the UK by way of an authorized firm.

Mt. Gox bitcoin repayments

Mt. Gox, which a dcade ago was the first crypto exchange to be targeted in a hack, has said it will reimburse those whose funds went missing.

Once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox faced a significant crisis in early 2014 that led to its collapse, when a total of 850,000 bitcoins went missing, although 200,000 were reportedly later recovered.

The hack was attributed to a combination of poor management, security vulnerabilities, and possibly internal fraud. The platform had been experiencing security breaches and technical issues leading up to the collapse, after 25,000 bitcoins were stolen in June 2011.

In a letter dated June 24 the company says: “The Rehabilitation Trustee will commence the repayments in bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in due course to the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee has completed the exchange and confirmation of the required information for implementing the repayments. The repayments will be made from the beginning of July 2024”.

According to Cointelegraph, more than $9.4 billion worth of bitcoin is owed to approximately 127,000 creditors.

The deadline for repayments is currently October 2024.

Australia bitcoin ETF

The VanEck bitcoin ETF has launched on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), which accounts for 90% of Australia’s securities market.

The move comes six months after spot bitcoin products listed in the US.

BetaShares and DigitalX are also tipped to begin offering bitcoin ETFs.

A competitor exchange in Australia run by the local subsidiary of CBOE Global Markets already hosts several bitcoin ETFs. The Monochrome bitcoin ETF started trading on CBOE in June.

The interest in bitcoin ETFs is driven by the potential demand from Australia’s robust pension sector, particularly self-managed super funds. These ETFs will allow investors to gain exposure to bitcoin without the complexities of directly handling the cryptocurrency​.