In a Sept. 23 letter on its website, Coinshares claimed the FCA has not provided enough evidence to justify the proposed ban on crypto ETNs – warning its customers that they will no longer be able to trade such products if the ban is approved.
The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing to ban cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETNs) – but Coinshares, a U.K.-based regulated public exchange, disagrees with that proposal.
ETNs are a type of unsecured debt note issued by an institution that can be held until maturity or be traded.
Claims of insufficient evidence
The company added:
“We believe that the FCA has not provided sufficient evidence to justify the proposed ban. Through its consultation, the regulator makes little attempt to genuinely evidence its claims and instead ‘cherry picks’ datasets in order to illustrate its perception of crypto assets, ETNs and the perceived harm the FCA believes these products cause.”
Coinshares is urging its customers to join them in the fight against the FCA by signing a petition and sending emails and text messages directly to the regulator, expressing their disagreements with the proposed ban. Coinshares wrote:
“We hope you will support us in fighting these proposals by submitting a response … The more responses the FCA receives in protest to these measures, the more likely they are to see sense and abandon these proposals.”
20% of rich U.K. millennials have invested in crypto
While the FCA is considering a ban on crypto ETNs, Cointelegraph previously reported that a recent survey by London-based law firm Michelmores LLP revealed that 20% of affluent millennials in the United Kingdom have invested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The survey revealed that among those born between 1981 and 1996 with investable assets of £25,000 ($31,000) or more, 20% had invested in the new asset class.
Congressional Challenger to House Speaker Pelosi Is Fundraising in Crypto
A primary challenger to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is looking to change the way the federal government regulates the blockchain industry, in addition to raising $1 million in cryptocurrency donations.
2020 congressional candidate hopeful Agatha Bacelar (D) is looking to unseat Pelosi in California’s 12th district, according to her campaign website. Pelosi has been in Congress since 1987 and is currently in her second tenure as Speaker of the House.
Touting her background in the STEM fields, Bacelar’s claims the “once-bright future for crypto in America has been dimming” and “has suffered as federal intervention pushed innovators out of our district and the country.”
Specific cryptocurrency legislative goals are not listed on her campaigns website. However, she states that cryptocurrency is “about building alternatives that do not exploit users and creating an ecosystem of innovation that better serves the American people.”
As such, Bacelar aims to enter Congress to push for “informed, practical, and future-savvy” regulation in the U.S.
In her campaign statement, she adds that that blockchain is “key to building trustful live democracy tools”, while crypto is “essential for promoting human rights and a viable future.”
The candidate is also fundraising $1 million in cryptocurrency through the Coinbase exchange. As of now, her campaign has raised $5,000 in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and USD Coin.
Political campaigns inclusion of cryptocurrency and blockchain planks are becoming more common as the industry grows. Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang spoke at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2019 event and has included federal regulatory reform as part of his platform.
Bacelar’s campaign group did not respond to a CoinDesk request for comment by press time.
