Crypto Participants Field Questions from UK Lawmakers After FTX Collapse

Following the FTX bankruptcy last week, executives from Binance and Ripple, among others, testified in front of the U.K. Parliament Treasury Committee.

Present were committee chair Harriet Baldwin – a conservative member of parliament – along with other members of that committee. Testifying were Daniel Trinder, vice president of government affairs of Europe at Binance, Susan Friedman, head of policy at payments network Ripple, Ian Taylor, executive director of lobby group CryptoUK and Tim Grant, head of Europe at Galaxy Digital.

“This is the exchange collapsing Ian, must feel a bit awkward coming in talking to us after last week,” Baldwin said. She also fired off other questions to the group, such as if the events surrounding FTX undermined confidence in what they do for a living.

“I think it would be very wrong to tar the entire industry by this one bad apple, which happened to be a very big apple,” Grant said.

The U.K. still has hopes to be a crypto innovation hub and wants to work with regulators to ensure this objective doesn't undermine stability, its Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt told Sky news on Friday.

Turning back to today’s hearing, CryptoUK’s Taylor called for the government to put in place a broad framework like the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation, and Ripple’s Friedman echoed this request. Plus, Taylor and Binance’s Trinder also said crypto firms needed auditing.

The committee also asked Trinder if Binance knew its actions – 1) Unloading on the markets much of its holdings of FTX exchange token FTT, and 2) Agreeing to and then backing out of a deal to bailout/acquire FTX – might lead to the collapse of that exchange.

Trinder denied such intention and offered to quickly send the committee related correspondence documents to justify that Binance’s actions were not fuelled by the intention to destroy its competitor.

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Crypto Industry Participants Field Questions from UK Lawmakers After FTX Collapse

In an evidence inquiry session on crypto held by the Treasury Committee, the group addressed negative questions, with some calling for more regulatory clarity.