The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), alongside HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Metropolitan Police, has intensified its crackdown on unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trading. In a September 17 statement, the regulator confirmed it served cease and desist orders on three London premises on September 10, suspected of operating illegal P2P crypto businesses. No arrests were disclosed, but the action marks the second such sweep in 2026 and reinforces the UK's stricter oversight ahead of the full cryptoasset regime.
The FCA emphasized that no entity is currently registered to run a P2P crypto trading operation in the UK, meaning unregistered operators sit outside monitoring channels for illicit finance. The operation was carried out under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. Steve Smart, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: "Working with partners, we continue to track and disrupt illegal crypto activity... Anyone running an unregistered peer-to-peer crypto business should assume we are looking at them." Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant Sathish Alalasundaram also warned that law enforcement is adapting as criminal tactics change.
The campaign follows an April operation in which eight London sites were inspected with HMRC and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, with evidence now used in active criminal investigations. The FCA has already secured the UK's first conviction for an unregistered crypto ATM network, resulting in a four-year sentence for Olumide Osunkoya over a £2.6 million operation, and has arrested two people suspected of running a separate illegal exchange. The UK's full cryptoasset regime begins on October 25, 2027, with the FCA's authorization gateway opening on September 30, 2026.
Separately, the FCA is building its supervisory technology and sector expertise as it prepares to oversee roughly 60,000 legal and accounting entities for anti-money laundering from the backend of 2028. The regulator says its intelligence systems process more than 56 million records daily and is exploring AI and "agentic supervision" to identify high-risk firms earlier, while keeping human judgment central.
