The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has opened a consultation on perimeter guidance for the country's future crypto regime, giving firms a more specific view of which activities may require authorisation before the broader framework comes into force.

What the FCA is clarifying

According to the FCA's consultation paper, the draft guidance covers stablecoin issuance, custody and arranging custody, crypto trading platforms, dealing, arranging deals, and arranging staking. One of the clearest operational lines is around temporary settlement: the regulator says that exclusion is unlikely to require longer than 24 hours from the moment a firm gains control of a client's cryptoassets.

The paper also takes a narrower view of "just technical" services than some crypto firms may expect. Validators and node operators may stay outside scope when they provide purely technical infrastructure, but the FCA says added-value features such as reward dashboards, compounding, or validator selection and recommendation could bring a service into regulated staking activity.

Why it matters

The consultation is not final policy, and the FCA is asking for feedback until 3 June 2026. Still, the draft matters because it signals how the regulator intends to interpret edge cases around custody, staking, and blockchain-based systems. The paper explicitly says that using smart contracts, public blockchains, or elements of decentralisation does not by itself place an arrangement outside regulation.

The FCA says crypto firms will be able to start applying for authorisation from September 2026, with final perimeter guidance due in the autumn as the UK moves toward a regulated crypto regime in October 2027.