The UK authorisation gateway for crypto firms opens on 30 September
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe Financial Conduct Authority published guidance on 16 September on how the law behind the UK's coming cryptoasset regime applies, and which activities will require FCA authorisation. The guidance covers five families of activity: stablecoin issuance where the coin qualifies under the UK rules, running a trading platform for cryptoassets, dealing and the arranging of deals, custody, and the arranging of staking.
The dates are the part to write down:
- 30 September 2026 — the authorisation gateway opens and firms can apply;
- October 2026 — the FCA consults on targeted updates to this same guidance;
- 25 October 2027 — the regime comes into force.
David Geale, the FCA's executive director of consumers, payments and competition, framed it as giving firms "the clarity they've asked for so they can prepare with confidence".
The October consultation is not a formality, and it is why the guidance carries a caveat. The Government has amended the underlying legislation — introducing limited exclusions and clarifications for certain technical services providers — and the FCA says it will consult on updating the guidance in light of those changes. The consultation is to cover UK qualifying stablecoins, proprietary trading and market making, certain technology providers, decentralised protocols, safeguarding arrangements involving central securities depositaries, and financial promotions.
The FCA's own position is that the amendments will not affect most crypto firms, which can use the guidance now to prepare.
What it means
A firm has to decide where it sits before the rules are finished. Applications open on 30 September; the guidance on which activities are caught gets consulted on in October. Anyone applying in the first weeks is reading a perimeter the regulator has already said it intends to revisit.
Read the list of consultation topics as a list of unsettled edges. Decentralised protocols, technology providers, proprietary trading and market making are exactly the categories where "are we in scope" is hardest to answer, and they are the ones named for October. A firm in one of those categories has more reason to wait for the consultation than one issuing a stablecoin.
Thirteen months is the actual runway. The gateway opening a year before the regime bites is the regulator managing its own queue — being authorised is a process, not a form.