LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's markets watchdog is proposing banning the sale of derivatives based on crypto-assets to retail consumers due to what it considers the prevalence of market abuses.
Prices of crypto-assets - which include currencies like bitcoin as well as tokens representing other tradeable assets - are very volatile, and there is a lack of a clear investment need for products referencing them, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Wednesday.
The FCA "considers these products are ill-suited to retail consumers who cannot reliably assess the value and risks of derivatives or exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain crypto-assets," it said in a statement.
There was no reliable basis for valuing the assets underpinning the derivatives, and there was a "prevalence of market abuse and financial crime" in the secondary market for crypto-assets, such as cyber theft.
"We estimate the potential benefit to retail consumers from banning these (derivative) products to be in a range from 75 million pounds ($94 million) to 234.3 million pounds a year," it said.
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Kirstin Ridley and John Stonestreet)
