The Financial Conduct Authority has raided three unregistered peer-to-peer crypto trading sites in London, physically shutting down operations that exchanged cash for bitcoin or stablecoins without carrying out identity checks. The action marks a departure from the regulator's usual approach of issuing public warnings, signalling a willingness to intervene directly on the ground.
None of the three addresses appeared on the FCA's crypto register. The regulator has not announced charges at this stage. Operating a crypto exchange business in the UK without registration carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.
Since January 2020, the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 have required UK firms that exchange cryptoassets or hold wallets on behalf of customers to register with the FCA. Compliance with that requirement has proven difficult to achieve at scale. Only around fifty companies currently sit on the FCA's crypto register, and the regulator has accepted roughly 14% of applications submitted since the scheme opened. A fuller authorisation regime, built into the Financial Services and Markets Act, is due to roll out this year.
A wider pattern of enforcement
The London raids follow a series of cases that have exposed how unregistered cash-to-crypto conversion has been used to launder proceeds of crime. The National Crime Agency dismantled two Russian-speaking networks, known as Smart and TGR, which converted cash from UK drug traffickers into crypto. That effort, called Operation Destabilise, resulted in 84 arrests and the seizure of more than £20 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.
In a separate case, Olumide Osunkoya was sentenced to four years in prison for operating 28 unregistered crypto ATMs that processed nearly £2.6 million in transactions. The FCA has stated that every crypto ATM in the UK is illegal, since no operator has ever obtained the regulator's approval to run one.
A market reopening to retail investors
The crackdown comes as the FCA has taken steps in the other direction for regulated products. UK retail investors regained access to bitcoin-backed exchange-traded notes in October 2025, after a four-year prohibition. The contrast underlines the regulator's current stance: expanding access to products that meet its standards, while tightening enforcement against operators that sit entirely outside its oversight.
For now, the FCA has given no indication of further raids or a timeline for charges connected to the three London sites. The action nonetheless signals that unregistered cash-for-crypto operations in the capital are now a direct target of physical enforcement, not just regulatory warnings.
