Richard Fuller, the Treasury’s economic secretary, said the government wants the UK to “become a major hub for crypto technologies.”
In a parliamentary debate on crypto asset regulation in the UK on Wednesday, Fuller advocated for “powerful” use cases for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, including using distributed ledger technology for customs and international trade and storing medical records on the blockchain. Alexander Stafford, Parliamentary Private Secretary to newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss, has “reaffirmed” the Prime Minister’s commitment to providing UK residents with an internet service that will enable buying, selling and mining.
“As the importance of crypto technologies grows, the UK government is looking for ways to make the UK more competitive globally,” Fuller said.
The economic secretary added:
“We want to be the country of choice for those who want to create, innovate and build in the crypto space […] By making this country hospitable to crypto technologies, we can attract investment, create new jobs, benefit from tax revenue, create a wave of new products and services and move the current UK financial services landscape into a new phase.
Fuller said the UK government under Truss plans to press ahead with the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduced in July, which aims to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins. He also signaled support for the Economic Crimes (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, which would give law enforcement “new powers to seize and recover crypto assets.”
“The UK can be a bystander as this technology changes aspects of life, or we can be the best place in the world to launch and scale crypto technologies,” Fuller said. Build on the strengths of technologies and the thriving fintech sector, create new jobs, develop new products and services.
Related: The disgraced MP told Parliament that the UK could be the ‘home’ of crypto.
Fuller became economy secretary following the resignation of John Glenn and other senior UK government officials in response to allegations of misconduct in former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government. On Tuesday, Truss appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as the authority’s chancellor, or chief minister of finance.