What FCA registration
doesn't get you

Registration is anti-money-laundering, not consumer protection

Cryptoasset exchanges and custodian wallet providers carrying on business in the UK must register with the FCA under the money laundering regulations. The bar is high: of 391 applications completed between January 2020 and August 2026, 68 firms were registered. Around two thirds of the rest withdrew rather than being formally refused — only about 4% were refused outright — which in practice usually means an application that was going nowhere. So registration does signal a firm that survived real scrutiny of its systems and controls.

Note what it does not mean. “Carrying on business in the UK” is narrower than “has UK customers”: the FCA has said a business with no UK office or other UK activity, beyond simply having a client here, is likely to fall outside the requirement. Plenty of platforms used by UK consumers are not on the register and were never required to be. Absence is a reason to look harder, not proof of anything by itself. Marketing to UK consumers is caught separately, by the financial promotions rules.

But it is easy to over-read. Registration does not mean the FCA supervises how the firm treats you, does not make the products it sells suitable, and critically does not bring your holdings within the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. If the firm fails, there is no £85,000 backstop as there would be with a bank.

Check the register yourself, every time

Firms are added and removed, and cloned-firm scams copy the details of genuinely registered businesses down to the registration number. The only reliable check is the FCA's own register, and the only safe contact details are the ones published there — not the ones on the website that approached you.

The rules change in 2027 — but not the part you would hope

Money laundering registration is being replaced by full authorisation. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 were made in February 2026, the FCA published its final rules in June, and the timetable now runs:

• 30 September 2026 — the authorisation gateway opens. Firms apply to be authorised, not merely registered.
• 31 July 2027 — after this, a money laundering registration application is unlikely to be decided before the new regime starts.
• 25 October 2027 — the regime commences. A firm needs authorisation to serve the UK market.

That is a genuine change. Authorised firms will be supervised on how they conduct themselves, not only on their anti-money-laundering systems.

Here is the part most people will get wrong. Authorisation is not compensation. The FCA has confirmed that FSCS protection will not be extended to cover cryptoassets, and that cryptoasset business will not come within the Financial Ombudsman Service — firms will instead have to handle complaints themselves under the FCA’s complaint-handling rules. So when platforms begin advertising that they are “FCA authorised” from late 2027, that will be true, and it still will not mean your coins are protected if the firm goes under.

If you take one thing from this page: “regulated” and “your money is safe” are different sentences, and they are going to stay different.

What actually differentiates exchanges

Beyond registration, the things that cost you money over time are rarely on the marketing page. Fee structure matters more than the headline rate — spread often exceeds commission, and “zero fee” usually means the spread is doing the work. GBP deposit method decides how quickly you can move: Faster Payments is free and instant, card deposits carry a percentage fee.

Then withdrawal: whether you can move coins to your own wallet at all, and what that costs. An exchange that makes withdrawal awkward is one you cannot leave. And exportable transaction history in a format your tax software reads, which sounds dull until January.