On August 5th (UTC+8), George Osborne, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, criticized the country's stance on cryptocurrency regulation. According to him, excessive caution is "leaving the United Kingdom completely behind" in global financial innovation.
Osborne directed his criticisms at Rachel Reeves, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England. He accused them of delaying the regulatory process, highlighting the central bank's policy on stablecoins as a brake on innovation.
Osborne's dissatisfaction is shared by the sector. The group CryptoUK and local startups also consider the country's regulatory environment to be "very slow and overly cautious." They point out that this slowness hinders access to traditional financial services and investment products.
While the United Kingdom is lagging, other jurisdictions like Singapore and Hong Kong are advancing with their own regulatory frameworks, attracting more capital and talent to those markets.