Thread by @HenriArslanian

1/ Last week the UK government announced that they want the country to become a global crypto hub. What does this mean? Who are the winners and losers? And what is the broader impact this will have on the crypto ecosystem?

Time for a thread 🧵👇

2/ A big development occurred on April 4 when John Glenn, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, gave a keynote at the Innovate Finance Global Summit that layed out in a detailed speech what the government is focusing on.

3/ First, they want to make stablecoins a recognized form of payment. There are now over $180 billion in global stablecoin assets, so the UK news could definitely have a major impact on their usage.

4/ The UK is also looking at introducing a financial market infrastructure sandbox to enable crypto firms to experiment and innovate.

5/ The third focus area is establishing a crypto asset engagement group to work more closely with the industry. This will allow the government and policymakers to have a direct bridge to the crypto community without any intermediaries.

6/They're also exploring ways of enhancing the competitiveness of the UK tax system, looking at elements like borrowing, lending, and staking as well as the tax impact of crypto assets for asset managers.

7/ The last major component of this announcement is that the Treasury is going to be working with the Royal Mint to develop an NFT this summer. If I told you a year ago that you'll have policymakers and regulators and central banks looking at NFTs, you would have laughed.

8/ Now, who are the winners of this? The biggest winner of this is the crypto community in the UK, which has been lobbying for a long time to try to get a clear framework where they can operate.

9/ This is also a victory for stablecoins. The fact that a jurisdiction like the UK is looking at recognizing them as a form of payment sends the right signal and the right messaging. I expect many other jurisdictions now to do the same, especially smaller jurisdictions.

10/ It's difficult to find a real loser in this situation. But this could impact other hubs like Singapore and the U.S. But the big elephant in the room is the rising star that is Dubai.

11/ Over the last couple of weeks, many of the large crypto platforms have announced plans to move to Dubai, using the city as a hub for the entire EMEA region. So the big competitor that Dubai needs to look at, and vice versa, is London.

12/ I'll also be watching what happens with the traditional financial institutions based in the UK following the news. Many of them were not moving very quickly on crypto, using ambiguity from policymakers and central banks as an excuse. Now, there's no excuse anymore.

13/ Now these firms will need to accelerate their crypto plans and strategies. So I really expect to see an increase in the speed of activity we see from traditional players when it comes to crypto.

14/ I think people in the UK, especially the crypto community, should be quite happy with this development. So very interesting development to watch and keep an eye on.

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#Bitcoin #BTC #stablecoins #UK #regulations #Ethereum #ETH #NFTs