The Financial Conduct Authority confirmed that no peer-to-peer crypto traders are legally registered to operate anywhere in the UK, meaning every active P2P operator in the country is in breach of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017. Evidence gathered during the operation is feeding into a number of ongoing criminal investigations, though no arrests have been publicly announced in connection with this specific action. The FCA was joined by HM Revenue and Customs and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU).

"Unregistered peer-to-peer crypto traders operating in the UK are doing so illegally and pose a financial crime risk," said Steve Smart, the FCA's Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight. Detective Inspector Ross Flay of SWROCU added: "By working with our colleagues at the FCA and HMRC we are able to effectively target and disrupt unregistered peer-to-peer crypto traders."

P2P crypto trading refers to the direct buying and selling of digital assets between individuals, often arranged through informal brokers or dedicated platforms, without going through a regulated exchange.

The FCA's concern centres on the absence of Know Your Customer checks, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting in these channels. Under UK law, anyone operating such a business must register with the FCA before conducting any activity.

Today's action fits a pattern of escalating enforcement. In February 2025, Olumide Osunkoya became the first person convicted in the UK for running an unregistered crypto business, receiving a four-year prison sentence after his ATM network processed more than £2.5 million in transactions. In June 2024, two individuals were arrested in a joint FCA and Metropolitan Police operation targeting a suspected illegal crypto exchange with an estimated £1 billion in transaction volume. Earlier this year, the FCA filed High Court proceedings against offshore exchange HTX (formerly Huobi), the regulator's first enforcement action under the UK's financial promotions regime. The FCA has also systematically shut down the country's illegal crypto ATM network, reducing the number of legal machines from more than 80 in 2022 to zero by 2024.

The crackdown carries significant consequences for diaspora communities across London. South Asian and African migrants, among the city's largest population groups, have increasingly used informal P2P channels to transfer money to countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. Traditional remittance services charge an average of roughly 6.5 percent per transfer, with some corridors exceeding 10 percent. By contrast, stablecoin transfers can reduce costs to below 1 percent. USDT on the Tron network accounts for more than 70 percent of crypto payment volume, according to CoinGate. The prevalence of informal P2P channels in South Asian corridors reflects a deeper structural pattern. Security analysts estimate that 20 to 40 percent of India's total remittance flows move through hawala networks, with a growing proportion now routed through P2P and non-custodial wallets. Regulators view the crypto P2P ecosystem as the functional equivalent of hawala, and the FCA's action is partly aimed at disrupting that convergence.

The global crypto remittance market reached an estimated $27.87 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to $34.96 billion in 2026, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 25.4 percent. Sub-Saharan Africa alone received $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52 percent increase year-on-year, with P2P platforms serving as core infrastructure for both remittances and trade finance. South Asia recorded an 80 percent increase in crypto adoption between January and July 2025, with an estimated 25 million rural users in India relying on mobile crypto wallets as their primary financial tool.

The FCA's enforcement signals that informal P2P brokers operating in London now face direct criminal risk, which could push some remittance activity further underground. It may equally accelerate a shift toward regulated on-ramps. Licensed exchanges and stablecoin platforms with competitive pricing on South Asian and African corridors are positioned to absorb flows that previously moved through informal networks. The contrast with African regulators is notable: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa are all developing frameworks that explicitly accommodate P2P trading as a tool for financial inclusion rather than treating it primarily as a compliance gap.

A new, broader regulatory regime for crypto firms under the Financial Services and Markets Act is scheduled to go live on October 25, 2027, with the application window opening September 30, 2026. That deadline gives informal operators roughly 18 months to either register and meet full compliance obligations, including capital requirements, Consumer Duty, and Senior Manager accountability rules, or shut down.

Given that the FCA has historically rejected around 75 percent of initial crypto registration applications since 2020, that window is narrower in practice than it appears on paper.