The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning regarding Coinburp Limited. The regulator has become aware of promotional material indicating that Coinburp plans to launch the CoinBurp $BURP Token and Initial DEX Offering on Monday 26 July 2021.
The FCA warns that the firm does not yet hold full FCA Registration under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (as amended) (MLRs) but has submitted an application to the FCA for registration.
The firm does appear on the FCA’s Temporary Registration Register (TRR). The TRR was established to allow existing cryptoasset businesses to continue to trade whilst the FCA assesses their application.
It does not allow any firm to claim to be Registered or Authorised by the FCA. Whilst firms with this status can continue to trade, such firms and their personnel have not yet been assessed as fit and proper, and the FCA has not yet determined their application for the purposes of the MLRs.
The regulator explains that crypto tokens can become very difficult to sell or may significantly reduce in value – and consumers that invest in them should be prepared to lose all their money. It is unlikely that you will have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme if something goes wrong.
On 10 January 2020, the FCA became the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) supervisor for some activities undertaken by cryptoasset firms operating by way of business in the UK, including exchanges of money into cryptoassets, cryptoassets into money and exchanges of cryptoassets for other cryptoassets.
This includes situations where a firm is issuing or creating the token themselves, commonly referred to as an ‘Initial Coin Offering’.