UK’s financial regulator has stepped up pressure on unregistered digital-asset dealing in the capital, targeting premises suspected of running peer-to-peer cryptocurrency businesses without the approvals required under anti-money-laundering rules.
On 10 September 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) joined HM Revenue & Customs and the Metropolitan Police Service at three London sites.
Officers issued cease-and-desist notices at each location, instructing those involved to halt any commercial activity judged to fall outside the registration regime.
The visits form part of a broader effort to interrupt informal trading networks that sit beyond the controls designed to flag suspicious flows of funds.
Peer-to-peer dealing means buyers and sellers exchange crypto-assets directly rather than through a licensed platform.
When that activity is carried on as a business in the United Kingdom, registration with the FCA is mandatory.
The regulator states that no such peer-to-peer firm is currently on its register.
Operators who ignore that requirement therefore operate without customer due-diligence checks, transaction monitoring, or other safeguards that registered businesses must apply.
Officials argue that the gap creates an opening for criminals seeking to move or disguise illicit proceeds.
Because these traders work outside the official perimeter, they avoid the reporting duties that help investigators trace funds.
Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said partner agencies would keep identifying and disrupting such activity, adding that anyone running an unregistered peer-to-peer crypto business should assume they are already under scrutiny.
Detective Sergeant Sathish Alalasundaram of the Metropolitan Police noted that digital assets can be transferred across borders at speed, which complicates investigations.
He said the force is adapting its methods as offenders change tactics, and that joint work with other agencies remains essential to bringing offenders to justice.
The September visits follow a larger operation in April, when the FCA, HMRC and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit targeted eight London addresses.
Material collected then is already feeding criminal inquiries and further enforcement.
The regulator also points to earlier cases, including the prosecution of an individual who ran an unlawful crypto ATM network and support for arrests linked to an unregistered exchange.
Crypto-assets are still treated as high-risk investments in the UK.
Until a fuller regulatory framework takes effect in October 2027, the main legal constraints on firms remain money-laundering rules and restrictions on financial promotions.
Consumers are advised to use the FCA’s Firm Checker to confirm whether any business they deal with holds the necessary permissions.
The latest action signals that informal cash-for-crypto desks and similar setups in London are no longer being treated as a grey area.
Registration is not optional for commercial operators, and multi-agency visits are becoming a recurring tool rather than a one-off warning. For traders still operating without approval, the message from the regulator and police is that disruption will continue.