The UK Treasury Committee has prepared a report on the regulation of crypto-assets. The Committee says that trading in native crypto-currencies^[1] such as Bitcoin and Ether should be regulated as gambling.

According to the Treasury Committee, native crypto-currencies have no value in social or economic terms, pose a high risk for consumers due to extreme price volatility and high risk of losses, and involve a negative impact on the environment. Native crypto-currencies are used for fraud, scams, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The authors of the report emphasise positive aspects of using the Distributed Ledger technology and the possibility of reducing the costs of financial transactions. However, it is necessary to mitigate the risk associated with each type of crypto-assets. 

The Committee’s position is contrary to the plans of the British prime minister, who wants to create a global hub for crypto-asset technology in the UK. The Committee experts stress that actions aimed at putting crypto-currencies on the same footing as traditional financial services might create in consumers a wrong impression of security and protection of crypto trading.

The full text of the report of the UK Treasury Committee is available here:

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/195246/consumer-cryptocurrency-trading-should-be-regulated-as-gambling-treasury-committee-says-in-new-report/.

^[1] An unbacked token is a type of a payment token whose value is not based on values of other goods or rights, or guaranteed by any entity.