An email from a Luno client said they would be unable to buy or trade crypto as of October 6. 

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s new promotion rules will treat crypto like “restricted mass market investments” and require any advertisements or promotions to contain clear warnings and ban incentives. Though the new rules were set to take effect on Oct. 8, firms can now apply for an extra three months to apply the rules. 

Luno is not the only one pausing parts of its U.K. business temporarily. In response to these rules, PayPal also said it would halt crypto purchases in October until 2024. 

Affected Luno customers can still sell and withdraw their funds, Taylor added. “We are taking a phased approach to reintroducing investment opportunities to our customers,” he said.

SEC Chair Gensler Stays The Course In Push For Crypto Compliance Ahead Of Tuesday’s Hearing

In a prepared testimony ahead of Gary Gensler’s appearance before the Senate Banking Committee today, the SEC Chair adamantly expressed that he plans to propose, again, that many cryptocurrencies fall under the agency’s jurisdiction. 

Gensler stated, 

“Given this industry’s wide-ranging noncompliance with the securities laws, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen many problems in these markets. We’ve seen this story before. It’s reminiscent of what we had in the 1920s before the federal securities laws were put in place. Thus, we have brought a number of enforcement actions – some settled, and some in litigation – to hold wrongdoers accountable and promote investor protection.” 

As Congress has officially rolled back into Washington after a summer recess, Gensler is likely to face questions about several court decisions seen over the past several weeks. 

Grayscale got a win in late August when a D.C. circuit judge ruled that the SEC has to re-review the asset manager’s bid for a spot bitcoin ETF. 

A month earlier, Ripple Labs received a partial win when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that some of Ripple’s sales, called programmatic, of XRP did not violate securities laws because of a blind bid process in place for them. She also ruled that other direct sales of the token to institutional investors were securities, leaving a partial win for the SEC. 

The hearing comes several months after the SEC sued both Coinbase and Binance for not registering as an exchange. 

Gensler said in his prepared testimony that he would not be talking about ongoing litigation.