On January 18, 2022, the UK Treasury confirmed that it will bring certain cryptoassets into the scope of financial promotion regulation. The Treasury’s view is that the evidence of risks to consumers provides a strong case for intervention. Key points to note The Treasury proposes to define the scope of ‘qualifying cryptoasset’ as any cryptographically secured digital representation of value or contractual rights which is fungible and transferable, but this definition is still provisional and under…
Following its ban of seven cryptocurrency advertisements in December 2021 for “irresponsibly taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience and for failing to illustrate the risk of the investment,” the UK’s advertising watchdog, the ASA, has banned a further two cryptocurrency ads in January 2022. The ASA has made clear that monitoring crypto-assets is a “red-alert priority” following concerns that many ads fail to fully convey the risks of investing. Companies that wish to advertise their crypto-assets…
The Law Commission has published its advice to the UK Government on smart legal contracts and concluded that “the current legal framework in England and Wales is clearly able to facilitate and support the use of smart legal contracts, without the need for statutory law reform”.The advice forms part of an on-going project initially commissioned by the Lord Chancellor in 2019 into the ways in which smart contracts are being used, and the extent to…