The UK’s markets watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail investors.

Ethereum browser wallet MetaMask has crossed the one million monthly active user mark, partly thanks to the growth of the decentralized finance ecosystem.

Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Fintech firm Ripple Labs, said that his firm is considering moving its headquarters from San Francisco, California to a more crypto-friendly jurisdiction in Europe or Asia.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• UK Markets Watchdog Bans Sale of Crypto Derivatives and ETNs to Retail Investors
• Ethereum Wallet MetaMask Surpasses 1 Million Monthly Active Users
• Ripple Considering Moving Headquarters to a More Crypto-Friendly Jurisdiction
• RUNE, EOS, FIL Are Moving the Crypto Market

UK Markets Watchdog Bans Sale of Crypto Derivatives and ETNs to Retail Investors

The UK’s markets watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail investors.

The FCA has revealed in an announcement it considers derivatives and ETNs to be “ill-suited for retail consumers due to the harm they pose.” These products, the regulator noted, “cannot be reliably valued” by retail investors because of several factors.

These include the inherent nature of the underlying cryptocurrencies, a “prevalence of market abuse and financial crime” in the secondary market, “extreme volatility” in cryptoasset prices,” and an “inadequate understanding of cryptoassets by retail consumers.”

“To address these harms, the FCA has made rules banning the sale, marketing and distribution to all retail consumers of any derivatives (ie contract for difference – CFDs, options and futures) and ETNs that reference unregulated transferable cryptoassets by firms acting in, or from, the UK.”

The FCA estimated retail investors will save around £53 million ($68.5 million) from the crypto derivatives and ETNs ban.

Ethereum Wallet MetaMask Surpasses 1 Million Monthly Active Users

Ethereum browser wallet MetaMask has crossed the one million monthly active user mark, partly thanks to the growth of the decentralized finance ecosystem.

MetaMask has revealed its year-to-date growth has been above 400%, and that its growth is happening in a “compounding feedback loop similar to the feedback loop of the internet itself” as users install the wallet for one application, but end up using it for others as well.

MetaMask added its mobile application heled onboard new users as well, and that its top four countries in volume of mobile users are the USA, India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. 

Ripple Considering Moving Headquarters to a More Crypto-Friendly Jurisdiction

Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Fintech firm Ripple Labs, said that his firm is considering moving its headquarters from San Francisco, California to a more crypto-friendly jurisdiction in Europe or Asia.

Larsen’s comments came during an interview with Fortune, where he pointed out he believes the U.S. is “woefully behind in kind of stepping up to what is going to be the next generation of the global financial system.”

The Ripple executive pointed to more crypto-friendly jurisdictions like the UK, Switzerland, and Japan as locales Ripple is considering moving its headquarters to. In those jurisdictions, he added, “you have the advantage of happening the capital markets, the regulators, and the innovators all in the same city,” while in the U.S. investors, lawmakers, and tech entrepreneurs “don’t understand each other.”

RUNE, EOS, FIL Are Moving the Crypto Market

There are several tokens leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with rather liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos who may have higher percentage changes.

THORChain (RUNE) – THORChain, a cross-chain permissionless decentralized exchange protocol, has seen the value of its RUNE token move up 13.4% in the last 24-hour period.

EOS (EOS) – The price of EOS jumped from $2.5 to $2.9, and has since moved back down to $2.65 after Block.one – the firm behind the EOSIO Protocol – published a blog post welcoming Google Cloud to the EOS Community. EOS is up 5.62% in the last 24 hours.

FileCoin (FIL) – Filecoin, a decentralized storage network that turn cloud storage into an algorithmic market, has seen its FIL token move up 4.3% in the last 24 hours.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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