FCA crypto regime: the application window closes on 28 February 2027, nearly eight months before the rules start

The application window for the new FCA crypto regime closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 28 February 2027. A firm that files through the regulator’s Connect system before then, and is still waiting for a decision when the rules begin, can keep carrying on the activity it applied for until the application is finally determined. A later filing is still possible, but it does not bring that protection.

The date adds no prohibition of its own. The authorisation requirement starts on 25 October 2027, and the rules already in force, including crypto promotion rules and money laundering registration, keep applying until then. The FCA words the start date in two ways: its cryptoassets information page says the regime is “expected” to come into force on that day, while Policy Statement PS26/18, published on 16 September, gives it without the hedge. So does the law itself: regulation 1(2) of SI 2026/102 names 25 October 2027 as the full commencement day.

What closes on 28 February, and at what time

The hours are set in a direction the FCA issued on 20 February 2026 under regulation 52 of the instrument: the period runs from 9am on 30 September 2026 to 11.59pm on 28 February 2027. The FCA’s gateway page gives the dates only and points to that direction.

The direction names the date and makes no allowance for a weekend, and no source we read says a Sunday close rolls over to Monday. The FCA does have the power to amend or replace the direction in order to extend the period. We found no sign that it has used it.

Regulation 52 required a window of at least 28 days ending at least 28 days before the start. This one runs for about five months and ends 239 days ahead of the regime.

Who has to apply to the FCA

Today, crypto firms in the UK register with the FCA under the Money Laundering Regulations, and consumer promotions have been regulated since October 2023. The new regime goes further, with authorisation under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), plus conduct and prudential rules. The activities that will need permission are:

• Issuing a qualifying stablecoin.
• Safeguarding qualifying cryptoassets, or arranging their safeguarding.
• Operating a qualifying cryptoasset trading platform.
• Dealing in qualifying cryptoassets, as principal or as agent.
• Arranging deals in qualifying cryptoassets, or arranging qualifying cryptoasset staking.

An existing registration does not carry over. PS26/18 says registrations and permissions will not convert automatically, and it names firms on the money laundering register as well as those under the Payment Services Regulations or the Electronic Money Regulations. Law firm Bratby Law points out that an e-money or payment authorisation is not a Part 4A permission, so those firms have nothing to vary and must apply for one. Firms already authorised under FSMA for other business vary their permissions instead.

The perimeter is still being adjusted. The Treasury laid a second instrument in September that adds exclusions, and the FCA’s consultation CP26/36 covers them, including for technology providers. The FCA says it will show some forbearance on the arranging permission to a firm that can demonstrate this uncertainty held up a complete application, provided the rest of the application arrives inside the window. For apps that select or route trades, whether they count as arranging is the live question, and our report on the draft guidance on trade routing covers it. A free, optional pre-application meeting is available, though the FCA says it does not guarantee success.

What the FCA crypto regime means for a firm that misses the window

The FCA says it expects to decide applications filed in the window before the regime starts. The saving provision, regulation 53 of the instrument, is what happens if it does not. For the activity in its application, the firm is treated as if the new rules had not come into force, and so is any overseas member of its group. That lasts while the application is undecided, or while a refusal remains open to review at the Tribunal or on appeal, and the provision ends two years after the start date at the latest.

The fallback is the transitional provision, regulations 55 to 63, which only permits a run-off. A firm in it is exempt from the general prohibition solely so far as it needs to be to perform contracts signed earlier, for two years at most. It can sign no new contract with an existing or a new UK customer, and its promotions may only serve those old contracts. It must tell the FCA, and tell each counterparty that it is not FCA-authorised. The ban on new contracts is written into this provision and not into the saving provision.

A firm can also move within that table. The FCA can direct a refused firm out of the saving provision only where it considers this necessary to fight crime, protect consumers or advance its objectives. An application rejected for lacking the minimum information counts as never made, unless a valid one follows. And the FCA says it will not expedite a late application to make up for the delay.

Bratby Law adds that a first application filed on or after 25 October 2027 brings no exemption at all, which fits the FCA’s exclusion of firms that did not apply before the start. One point does not line up neatly: the gateway page says firms must notify the FCA that they are using the saving provision, as soon as reasonably practicable after the start date, while regulation 54 words that duty for overseas persons. The FCA says it will publish how notifications are made. PS26/18 tells applicants to consider independent legal and compliance advice, and this page describes the rules without replacing it.

Application fees run from £2,820 to £28,150

The FCA’s Handbook Notice 144, published in September, sets out the fees proposed for each activity and says it went ahead as consulted, through instrument FCA 2026/58.

A firm applying for both FSMA authorisation and money laundering registration pays one fee, the highest that applies. Authorised firms then join a new periodic fee block, A.26, charged on annual income. Bratby Law reports a rate of £0 for 2026/27, and the FCA says it will consult on 2028/29 rates. Principal dealers and stablecoin issuers face a flat Financial Ombudsman levy, provisionally £0 and intended to be £75 for 2028/29.

What UK users of foreign exchanges may notice

The rules can reach platforms abroad. Under the perimeter guidance in PS26/18, an overseas firm involved in selling qualifying cryptoassets to, or buying them from, a consumer in the UK is deemed to act in the UK for four activities: operating a platform, dealing as principal, dealing as agent and arranging deals. Safeguarding and staking have their own tests. Asked whether reverse solicitation, a customer approaching the firm on their own initiative, is an exemption, the guidance answers “No”: it is not one in itself, and the need for permission depends on the facts.

The carve-out is narrow. An overseas firm is not brought in where an authorised principal dealer or authorised UK platform operator sits between it and the consumer as intermediary. An intermediary authorised only to arrange or to deal as agent does not have that effect. PS26/18 records that 13% of respondents challenged Parliament’s decision not to extend the overseas persons exclusion to these activities.

Enforcement under existing law has not waited for October 2027. On 29 October 2026 the FCA announced High Court undertakings from HTX over its promotions to UK consumers, in a settlement that carries no admission of liability, and our report covers the exchange’s exit from the UK. Steve Smart, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said “being based overseas does not put them beyond the reach of UK law”. Whether HTX ever applied to the gateway is not known.

We found no published list of applicants, so a UK customer cannot simply look up who filed. The signs are indirect: what a platform says about onboarding UK users, and, once the regime has started, whether it shows as FCA-authorised. A platform in run-off has to tell its UK counterparties that it is not authorised, and it cannot take on new UK customers.

Readers in the EU should note that the UK is outside MiCA, so a platform authorised under MiCA is not authorised in the UK as a result. Tax is a separate matter, and our guide to UK crypto tax covers it.

What is still unknown

We found no FCA figure for applications received and no names, so it is unknown whether any given exchange has applied. The instrument allows the FCA to publish information about firms in the transitional provision and about notifications it receives, but we found no commitment to a public list. We also found no FCA figure for how long decisions will take in this gateway.

The FCA’s web pages still say the regime is “expected” on 25 October 2027 while the instrument fixes the date, and we found nothing that explains the difference. The next date comes sooner: comments on CP26/36 close on 18 November 2026. The FCA is not consistent on what follows, since its consultation page aims for final guidance in January 2027 and paragraph 1.14 of the paper says spring 2027.