The United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), working with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Metropolitan Police, raided three London premises and issued cease-and-desist orders on suspicion that they were operating as outlets for illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto businesses.
According to reports, the agency did not carry out any arrests in the sweep, with the raid only the second of such in 2026. Along with recent documents from the regulator detailing the particulars of the crypto regime that kicks off in 2027, businesses running illegal crypto trading operations in the UK are now on alert. In its September 17 statement, the FCA said it had sent letters on September 10 ordering traders at multiple London locations to halt any suspected illegal crypto activity.
FCA alerts crypto businesses on need for authorization before 2027
Businesses need FCA authorization to run a peer-to-peer crypto trading operation, and per the regulator, no entity is currently registered to run such a business in the UK. These unregistered operators sit outside the channels the UK can monitor for dirty money flows. Consumers can check whether a crypto firm is registered through the FCA’s Firm Checker. The operation ran under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017.
“Working with partners, we continue to track and disrupt illegal crypto activity,” said Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight. “Anyone running an unregistered peer-to-peer crypto business should assume we are looking at them.” Detective Sergeant Sathish Alalasundaram of the Metropolitan Police sounded the same warning, saying that the force is adapting as criminals change their tactics.
Before this September action, the FCA, HMRC and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit inspected eight London sites in an April operation. The regulator said that it is using evidence it collected then in active criminal investigations and for further enforcement. The FCA is adding crypto convictions to its portfolio, playing a pivotal role in Olumide Osunkoya landing a four-year sentence for the unregistered crypto ATM network he ran between December 2021 and September 2023.
The first conviction of its kind in the UK took down an operation that processed £2.6 million in lifetime volume. The regulator arrested two others suspected of operating a separate illegal crypto exchange. Crypto stays largely unregulated in the UK outside anti-money laundering and financial promotion rules until October 25, 2027, when the country’s full cryptoasset regime takes effect. The FCA opened its authorization gateway for firms on September 30, 2026, and published guidance the same week on which activities will need clearance, Cryptopolitan reported.
