Most of the rules published in this environment were presented to the general public back in January. As expected, the final version of the guidelines does not contain any significant changes to the current regulatory framework and instead establishes which tokens are in the competence of the agency.
In particular, the manual contains the concept of a security-token, which is defined as an asset that has the characteristics of an equity or debt instrument, including ownership, and should therefore be regulated by the FCA.
Utility-tokens, on the other hand, do not provide such rights and, as a rule, will not be of interest to FCA. The exception is when they act as electronic money. The category of e-money includes certain steyblocks.
"A token that is not a security or form of electronic money is not subject to regulation. However, market participants need to take into account that certain activities using such tokens can be regulated, for example, when they are used to make regulated payments," the document says.
The third category is 'stock exchange tokens'. Bitcoin, airtime and other cryptocurrencies that FCA does not regulate have been included. However, they are also subject to anti-money laundering rules.
"Market participants should use this guide as a first step in understanding how to deal with certain cryptocurrency assets. However, the final decision can only be made on a case-by-case basis," the regulator explains.
Companies are given the opportunity to issue security-tokens without a regulatory license, which is also not required for the issue of traditional securities. At the same time, such tokens cannot be traded without FCA permission.