TWO dealers suspected of running an illegal £1billion cryptocurrency exchange have been arrested.
The pair’s London offices were also searched by Financial Conduct Authority investigators.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police seized several digital devices during raids on two homes in the capital.
The suspects, aged 38 and 44, were interviewed under caution by the FCA and released on bail.
More than £1billion of unregistered crypto assets are believed to have been bought and sold through the unnamed business, the regulator said.
Therese Chambers, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “The FCA has an important role to play in keeping dirty money out of the UK financial system.
These arrests show we will do everything in our power to stop crypto firms from operating illegally in the UK.”
It comes amid a global crackdown on crypto traders, including FTX, whose boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, was jailed for 25 years in the US for defrauding customers and investors.
Meanwhile, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao — founder of Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange — was jailed for four months in the US in April for allowing criminals to launder money on his platform.
Crypto crime accounted for more than £19billion of transactions last year, analysis suggests.
However, the FCA has a register of crypto companies that it allows to operate from the UK.
This includes crypto spin-offs set up by financial giants such as Fidelity, Standard Chartered and Japanese investment bank Nomura.
The regulator requires registered crypto dealers to prove they comply with UK money-laundering regulations so they can operate legally.
The list of authorised traders numbers 45.
However, a separate FCA list of crypto companies it suspects of operating illegally here has more than 13,000 on it.