UK Preparing To Ban Consumers From Buying Crypto With Borrowed Funds (theguardian.com)
(Friday May 02, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash)
from the good-thinking dept.)
- Reference: 0177267009
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/02/1832253/uk-preparing-to-ban-consumers-from-buying-crypto-with-borrowed-funds
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/02/uk-preparing-to-ban-consumers-from-buying-crypto-with-borrowed-funds-fca
The UK financial regulator is preparing to ban retail investors from using borrowed funds such as credit card balances [1]to invest in cryptocurrency as it seeks to overhaul supervision of the fast-growing digital assets market. The Guardian:
> The soaring values of virtual currencies such as bitcoin after Donald Trump's election have put pressure on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take a tougher line while it also lays the groundwork for the industry to flourish in the UK.
>
> According to a recent YouGov survey, the proportion of people in the UK using borrowed funds to make crypto purchases more than doubled from 6% in 2022 to 14% last year. Borrowing to fund investments, when asset values could change dramatically, meant consumers risked losing their entire investment and potentially other assets, such as their home. These characteristics closely resembled gambling, the Treasury committee found.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/02/uk-preparing-to-ban-consumers-from-buying-crypto-with-borrowed-funds-fca
> The soaring values of virtual currencies such as bitcoin after Donald Trump's election have put pressure on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take a tougher line while it also lays the groundwork for the industry to flourish in the UK.
>
> According to a recent YouGov survey, the proportion of people in the UK using borrowed funds to make crypto purchases more than doubled from 6% in 2022 to 14% last year. Borrowing to fund investments, when asset values could change dramatically, meant consumers risked losing their entire investment and potentially other assets, such as their home. These characteristics closely resembled gambling, the Treasury committee found.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/02/uk-preparing-to-ban-consumers-from-buying-crypto-with-borrowed-funds-fca
Will the UK ban leveraged trading too ??? (Score:3, Insightful)
by MrData ( 130916 )
Asking for a friend.
Re: (Score:3)
by Gravis Zero ( 934156 )
It would be nice if every nation did.
Cryptocurrency is NOT an investment (Score:1)
At best, it's a gamble, at worst a scam
Gambling is a tax on people who are bad at math
Borrowing money to gamble is stupid
The government can not, and should not try to pass laws against stupidity
Re: (Score:1)
You are correct only in the sense that Cryptocurrency is ALWAYS a scam and governments should be banning it on that basis. There is NO valid reason for cryptocurrency to exist - its only applications are fraud and criminal-enterprise money laundering.
Re:Cryptocurrency is NOT an investment (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, I'd agree with you, except that in 2008, banker stupidity caused my house to lose half its value. It wasn't my mistake that caused the loss, but because bankers are politically well connected, not only did I lose my investment, but my tax dollars were used to make the bankers - not me - whole.
When grandma gets scammed, her children lose their inheritance. The fact that a fool and his money are soon parted doesn't mean there's nothing immoral about taking advantage of another person's trust. Without trust, our society would look much different - and I think we'd rather have a society built on trust which prosecutes thieves than a society in which no one trusted each other, but fraud was legal.
Yes, there are stupid people in the world, but from a societal perspective, they're not as bad as the competent, but malicious, folks.
Re: (Score:1)
Case in point.
The stock market is what it is, now, because people from the 1970s onwards were FORCED to put their "retirement funds" into it and let silver-spoon assholes gamble on the stock market with their money in 401(k)s and similar setups rather than having more traditional retirement investments and pensions...
We are reaching the limit of this. The libertarian "but waah I could have invested (so-and-so money in perfect 20/20 hindsight)" doesn't mean EVERYONE would have "won." That's why each succ
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Why should the government not pass laws against stupidity?
Anyone who falls for a scam could be considered stupid, but scams are generally illegal. I'm fine with it being illegal to be predatory like this.
Now Starmer should fucking ban gambling advertising while he's at it.
Re: (Score:1)
My worry is that cryptocurrencies will end up like bad real estate debt, folded into derivatives that all the banks buy... and when those go sour, it becomes the government that has to pump the banks full of cash, effectively subsidizing the losses on the taxpayers. So, all the money made by crypto is actually money from taxpayers... effectively a welfare program.
Watch the bonuses to bankers go out in the millions after the collapse and bailout to add insult to injury.
Re: (Score:2)
Gambling is stupid, but banning legal gambling just creates black markets. It's better to legalize and tax it than to make it outright illegal in which case it will be conducted anyways only by criminal organizations that don't pay taxes and be far less kind than your average creditors. I don't see a particularly good argument for banning advertising for any legal activity either. Any argument that could be made about gambling advertisements affecting people in some way could be made for other products as w
Re: (Score:2)
We do have many laws against stupidity, most safety rules are: "No swimming -- Sharks" signs (you will get fined if not eaten), compulsory safety belts.
Re: (Score:2)
When the government wants to tax me to pay for the stupidity of other people then I'm suddenly in favor of imposing limits on how much stupidity those people can get up to. You can't have unlimited freedom if you're also beholden to everyone else around you be definition. If the government were willing to let people suffer the consequences of their own poor decisions then by all means let people be as free to lead their life as they see fit. Most people find this approach ghastly, but I just look at it as a