LONDON: Britain’s markets watchdog will step up its scrutiny of the initial coin offering (ICO) market to see if new rules are needed to protect investors after issuing an alert in September.

Start-ups have begun issuing new digital currencies via ICOs and the market has raised about 3.7 billion pounds ($4.93bn) this year according to an industry estimate.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it would gather further evidence on the market and conduct a deeper examination of what it called fast-paced developments.

“Our findings will help to determine whether or not there is need for further regulatory action in this area,” the FCA said in a statement on Friday.

Paul Lewis, a lawyer at Linklaters, said the legal and regulatory treatment of ICOs were often complex and unclear due to many jurisdictions being involved.

He said the FCA’s had sent “a signal that regulators are seeking to bring greater control to the ICO market, but it is far too early in the development of this market to predict what the settled or common regulatory approach will be.” The watchdog said it had noticed steady growth in the volume of contracts for differences (CFDs) trades linked to digital currencies. CFDs allow investors to gain indirect exposure to price movements in an underlying asset like digital currencies.

“This trend raises significant concerns about potential harm to retail consumers,” the FCA said.

The watchdog issued an alert on the products last month.

Jake Green, financial regulatory partner at law firm Ashurst, said the CFD industry was awaiting new European Union laws in January which give EU regulators powers to ban products.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2017