Investment platform CoinShares is urging customers to lobby the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over impending regulations it fears will be too restrictive to crypto asset products.
In a letter to investors sent Monday, CoinShares has asked its customers to write emails and text messages to the UK regulator in support of one of its premiere products, exchange-traded notes (ETNs), which would be banned under the proposed regulation for retail investors.
As CoinShares writes:
Similar to a bond, ETNs provide investors with returns based on a market benchmark such as the S&P 500. CoinShares offers exchange-traded products for bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, and XRP.
Released this past July, the FCA consultation paper claimed that "retail consumers cannot reliably assess the value and risks of derivatives and exchange-traded products that reference certain crypto assets.”
In today's letter, CoinShares said the FCA's analysis on crypto assets "demonstrates a lack of understanding of their functionality, value and the motivations for why an investor might seek out such products."
In a pre-formatted email CoinShares is asking investors to send to the regulator, the firm called the ban proposal "unwarranted" and "not been properly thought out or considered."
CoinShares is asking customers -- or any proponent of cryptoassets -- to write to the FCA over the proposed ban before the Oct. 3 comment deadline.
After publication, CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors told CoinDesk the FCA's proposed ban could set back the entire industry – inside and outside the UK – and not just CoinShares.
Said Demirors:
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FCA image via Shutterstock