Ex-FCA policy insider explains the ‘great divide’ in the UK’s crypto ambition
Key takeaways
- Before joining Hedera as vice president of global policy, she worked at the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), where she was involved in policy work during Brexit and,later, in crypto regulation.
- Arredondo believes one of the main reasons Britain's ambitions to become a crypto hub have struggled to gain momentum is a gap between policymaking and implementation.
- "I had never encountered first-hand the world that separates policy ambition from policy execution," Arredondo told CoinDesk in an interview in London.
Financial Conduct Authority official now at Hedera, says Britain’s crypto hub ambitions have been slowed less by hostility to the sector than by competing regulatory priorities and a gap between policy design and execution.She argues the U.K. has taken a split approach, moving quickly and proactively on institutional and wholesale crypto while subjecting startups and retail-focused firms to lengthy, complex authorization under legacy rules rather than a dedicated framework like the EU’s MiCA.Arredondo believes the next phase of digital money will hinge on interoperability and common standards across blockchains, stablecoins and CBDCs, and she sees the growing role of major financial institutions in crypto as proof that core crypto ideas are being absorbed into mainstream finance rather than abandoned.Isadora Arredondo has a unique outlook on crypto regulation in the United Kingdom. Before joining Hedera as vice president of global policy, she worked at the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), where she was involved in policy work during Brexit and,later, in crypto regulation.
Arredondo believes one of the main reasons Britain's ambitions to become a crypto hub have struggled to gain momentum is a gap between policymaking and implementation.
"I had never encountered first-hand the world that separates policy ambition from policy execution," Arredondo told CoinDesk in an interview in London. "There is a great divide between the ambition to drive policy and how it is actually implemented."