FCA Closes Consultation on UK Cryptoasset Admissions, Disclosures, and Market Abuse Regime, December 2025

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper CP25/41, titled "Regulating Cryptoassets: Admissions & Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets," on 15 December 2025. The consultation period closed on 20 February 2026. CP25/41 proposes a complete Admissions and Disclosures (A&D) regime and a Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets (MARC), both at the proposed stage as of the closing date, with final rules and guidance expected in policy statements later in 2026.

CP25/41 rests on the statutory authority created by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2025, which the UK Government laid in draft in December 2025 and which brought cryptoasset activities within the FCA's regulatory perimeter. The A&D regime requires that any cryptoasset offered to UK consumers or admitted to trading on a UK platform must satisfy specified disclosure standards at the point of admission. The MARC regime extends prohibitions on insider dealing and market manipulation — already established for traditional securities — to cryptoasset markets.

Cryptoasset trading platforms seeking to list tokens for UK consumers, stablecoin issuers, cryptoasset intermediaries, and issuers making public offers of cryptoassets in or to persons in the UK all fall within the primary scope of CP25/41. These market participants must prepare for pre-admission disclosure documents meeting FCA-specified content and liability standards, as well as ongoing disclosure obligations following admission. Non-UK firms directing cryptoasset activity at UK consumers are also within scope, meaning international exchanges and token issuers face direct regulatory obligations even where they lack a UK legal presence.

CP25/41 was published alongside CP25/40, which sets out proposed conduct-of-business and authorization rules for regulated cryptoasset activities, and CP25/42, which addresses prudential requirements. The FCA will review responses to all three consultations together under its Crypto Roadmap before publishing final rules. No transitional period has been confirmed as of the consultation close date, and firms should expect final policy statements during 2026. Decentralized finance protocols, wallet providers, and DAO operators are not expressly in scope under CP25/41, though the regime's breadth means some DeFi-adjacent activities may be captured depending on how the final rules define key terms.

Source: Financial Conduct Authority, CP25/41: Regulating Cryptoassets: Admissions & Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets (published 15 December 2025; consultation closed 20 February 2026). Official FCA webpage: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/consultation-papers/cp25-41-regulating-cryptoassets-admissions-disclosures-market-abuse-regime-cryptoassets. Consultation paper PDF: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/consultation/cp25-41.pdf. Confirmed: 6 March 2026.

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