MPs have urged the government to treat retail investment in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as a form of gambling.
Their value could change dramatically and consumers risked losing their entire investment, characteristics closely resembling gambling, the Treasury Select Committee found.
It also criticised abandoned plans for the Royal Mint to create a non-fungible token (NFT).
The Treasury told BBC News it did not support using gambling regulation.
The risks posed by crypto were “typical of those that exist in traditional financial services and it’s financial services regulation – rather than gambling regulation – that has the track record in mitigating them”, a Treasury official told BBC News.
Trade association CryptoUK strongly rejected the committee’s findings, saying MPs’ observations about cryptocurrency were “unhelpful, false, fundamentally flawed and unsubstantiated”.
Source: BBC
